Book Review: "11/22/63" by Stephen King

I just finished Stephen King's new book and realized that I have not been updating my Good Reads site since last fall.  So, although, I completed my goal for last year, it doesn't look like it.  I am going to have to go in a update what all I read.  I hope that I can remember it all!  :)

11/22/63 by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a huge book by my favorite author.  It took me a lot longer than his books normally take me.  I found all that "history" hard to sift through.  I thought he had an interesting theme though and I really enjoyed the parts that intersected his "It" storyline.


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I hope you enjoy it.  Stay tuned for some more reviews!  Plus, I have a new book challenge for this year - 15 books!

Book Review - Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this 1st book in the Mercy Thompson series, shape-changer mechanic, Mercy seems to be prone to entangle with creatures that most would steer clear of.  She seems to have the perfect mix of bravery and "should-know-better-and-does-it-anyway" to make the story interesting.  It helps that since she was born coyote, she has senses that humans do not, but it also gets her into trouble when she can't stop herself from helping out others and getting herself into trouble just as often.  She seems to draw strong male suitors to her like fireflies to a lamp.

In this story, she ends up helping out a lone new werewolf, which sheds light on a plot to upend the werewolf community and she finds herself saving the hot alpha.

It was a great read and I plan on continuing the series to find out what else happens to her.



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Book Review - Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had picked up this book thinking that it was the first in the series by Patricia Briggs about a shapechanger named Mercy who was a car mechanic that could change into a coyote and was mixed up with werewolves, vampires, fae and all sorts of trouble.  Once I got into the book, I realized that it was later in the series.  It turned out to be book 2.  I still really enjoyed it and wanted to start the series at the beginning as soon as I was done. 

In this book she seems to have all sorts of creatures chasing her (both romantically and violently).  Her vampire friend asks for help and it embroils her in a lot of trouble with a demon, vampires and of course the werewolves.  Not to mention trying to balance the multiple romantic advances that she has to fend off. 

I thought that the author did a good job of mixing it with lots of fantasy creatures in our real world.  I recommend it for those that like fantasy



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Book Review - City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed the previous 3 books in this series, plus another stand alone book that Cassandra Clare has written, so it was a no-brainer to pick this one up.  I did enjoy it, although, I think that the previous books were a tad better.  In some ways, this book seemed more like a piece of a story instead of a whole story unto itself.  I prefer series books to each speak for themselves,  while continuing the characters.  I would still recommend it for someone who likes the series, but it should not be read on it's own.



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Book Review - Crashed by Robin Wasserman

Crashed by Robin Wasserman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read the original book in this series over a year ago and saw that this author had continued the series.  It reminds me of one of my favorite spec. fiction authors, Nancy Kress, and her "Beggars" series.  Those were excellent books about the future.
This series was okay, neither bad nor great.  It has an interesting take what would happened had we figured out how to transfer our minds into a mechanical body and therefore live on forever.  It is not such a bright future in Robin's world.  Even the families that tried to save the lives of their loved ones, find that this new "person" is almost alien to them. 
In this book, the "skinners" and "orgs" (both the negative names that each group gave the other), go head to head.  A religious decides to take matters into it's own hands to get rid of what they think as an abomination.  The author tries to put forth the question, "What makes us human?"  Can it be transferred, does it reside in our thoughts, in our body, etc.  Where is our soul?
The think that the book would have been a little more interesting to me if I liked the antagonist a little better, but I have always enjoyed books that make you think.




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Book Review - Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I had read the first book in this series awhile back and it had been at least mildly entertaining, so I picked up book 2 of the Immortals series. 

This book, I found whiny.  The whole first half of the book she (the main character) whined about the fact that her boyfriend had been alive 600 years before her and therefor had had previous "partners".  It was a little much. 

Even when the book got better, she still whined about it.  I think I may pass on the next books in the series even though I had already purchased book 3.  



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Book Review - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have always wanted to read Neil Gaiman and just never ended up doing before now.  I picked up Neverwhere and delved into his world.  I was captured right from the start.  I found it cool how he merged everyday London streets with a world that lives beneath us.  He made it very believable that there is this world that exists and we just pretend that we don't see it - that someone could "fall through the cracks" of our world and also cease to be a member of the regular world.

The characters were very interesting.  Even his bad guys were very compelling.

I guess the biggest compliment that I could give it was that when I got to the end (which I liked), I wished that it would continue and that there was another book to follow with new adventures.



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I had someone suggest Neil to me ages ago and then I found pictures of his library and I fell in love (with his library :) )!  It is so amazing to make a bibliophile completely jealous!!
Here is a sneak peak:

Click here to see the rest of the pictures and info about this cool place to sit and read!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo review

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Enough people have read this book, that it was made into a movie (twice), so I thought that I would read it.  I guess that I do not enjoy reading what "everyone" else likes.  I found it hard to get into to start with.  Also, as an American, the names were confusing at first.  Some names were very similar (Berger vs Birger) that made it hard to know who was who at first and things that I am sure are well known in the author's country meant nothing to me (aquavit- is some sort of alcohol?).

The title of the book leads you to believe that it will be about a girl with a dragon tattoo.  Her parts in the first half of the book are so sparse as to be a joke.  She is more important in the last half, but it still seems to be more about other things entirely. 

Also, it was very graphic and violent, which I have never been fond of.  I will never understand why people want to read in detail someone's torture, rape and/or death - this book has them in spades.

I got to the end finally and have no intention of reading his follow-up books.



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The 13th Tale review

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this book.  I found it interesting.  It had a touch of mystery and intrigue.  You find yourself even liking the hard to like characters and being surprised by what happens.



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Book Challenge - 25% done

Some of you may remember my post about goodreads.com.  It is a cool website where you can keep track of what you read, read reviews, post your own reviews and more.  I challenged myself to read 20 books this year.  I did pick the number conservatively since I did not want to get to the end of the year (at Christmastime when I am reading less) and be too far from my goal.  I have never really tracked how many books that I read. Sometimes, like yesterday, I can read a book in a day.  Other times, I labor over the same book for a month or more (like the book that I finished the day before).  Well, I just checked my progress and I am already 25% completed of my goal.  It is only mid-February and I have 4 months worth of reading done.  Now, I am wondering if I should change my goal or leave it, complete it and then make a new one.

I thought that I would give you my review of the 2 books that I did read:

Book 1 - "Eat, pray, love : one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia" by  Elizabeth Gilbert.
Description (from Amazon):  At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing."

I originally check out this book this summer from our local library.  It had been made into a movie with Julia Roberts and everyone was raving about it (the book, I mean), so I figured that I would give it a shot.  I always prefer to read the story before seeing a movie.  Now granted, biography is not my usual genre. I must say that I have never read a book like this, but I liked the idea of it nonetheless.  I did not get very far into it, before I had to return it to the library.  We get 3 weeks and it came when I was already reading something else, so I did not start it right away.  I checked it out again in November and only got through the first 1/3 (where she is enjoying Italy).  I did like her living life, eating pasta and learning Italian.  All too quickly my 3 weeks was up and I was in only in the India section.  I asked for it for Christmas, so that I could finish it once and for all.  I found her "praying" in India to be full of whining.  I couldn't stand her diatribe about how she just couldn't get out of her own way to meditate.  It took me forever to get through this section.  Finally, she made her way to Bali to fall in love.  She was much more enjoyable here, although, now I had a sour taste in my mouth.  Maybe I should not be that hard on her since it really isn't my normal reading material, but I have to say that when I finally finished her book, I exhaled a sigh of relief.  Thank goodness it was over.  If it wasn't for my need to finish all the books that I start, I would have left her in India.  She is doing a follow-up book, which I will be passing!  

Book 2: Awakened (House of Night, book 8) by PC & Kristen Cast

Description (from the library): 

Zoey has returned from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey--or her relationship with her super-hot Warrior, Stark--ever be the same?  Let me begin by explaining that this is a young adult novel series.  To me, they are like brain candy - probably bad for me, but fun to chew on.  After reading something long or time-consuming, I love to sit down with this quick books.  This is the 8th in a series about a world where vampires are a normal part of life that some people just "become" as a teenager.  When I first started this series ages ago, I really enjoyed it.  It was fun and different.  However, I don't think that this mother/daughter author team know how to complete a story line.  Most books should be a story by themselves.  If they are a series, the characters may have new adventures, but one adventure is finished in each book.  Not so with this series.  Nothing ever gets finished, it just keeps going on and on.  Every time a new book comes out, I think, okay, this time they will finish it.  8th book finished - still to be continued!  She never vanquishes the bad guy.  The story itself is always interesting, but I think that this might be my last House of Night book, even though a new one comes out soon - as always. So, that's it.  Now I am on to The Thirteenth Tale and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Have you read anything interesting?  Drop me a line! Meagan

How to Keep Track of What You've Read, Want to Read and Should Read

If you are like me, you have read a ton of books!  If you, too have struggled with keeping track of what you have already read (to make sure that you don't reread), what you want to read, or even get an idea of what you might like next, I have a website for you!

In the "old days", you could only make your lists via a spreadsheet program or table within a text document.  I wanted to keep track of my books, especially ones that I had that were signed or special edition for some reason.

In the "really old days", you had to do it by hand in a tablet or what I had "A Booklover's Journal".  Although, sadly, my journal is markedly unfilled, even though I had read enough books to have filled more than a couple of them.  Even my spreadsheet is not a complete list of my books.  It was just too hard to enter the books.



I stumbled across a new website in my search for information on how to blog.  www.goodreads.com
As someone who LOVES making lists (I know, weird, huh?), I used a spreadsheet for everything; books, movies, addresses, etc.   I found that while different programs have come and gone, you can always transfer or import using a .csv file.   I really love how easy this site is to use.
1. First, you must create an account to start.  It was VERY simple.  I used my existed gmail account and added my name and password.  That's it.
2.  It also allows you to add friends by uploading your address book.  I skipped this step.
3.  You can of course just move forward and record books.

Since I already had an extensive list made up in excel, I imported my list.  It took a few minutes for it to verify the books.  It prefers isbn (international standard book number - or the number that you see on the back of a book by it's barcode), but you could also use title and author.  Again, very simple.  I clicked the "import" box and searched my hard drive for my spreadsheet.  That's it.  A note:  The first time that I tried, it did not like what I titled my columns and was not set up for the newer excel.  It prefers .csv, but it can use .xls or .txt files, too.  I changed my column headers and file type and done.

Another option for adding your titles is to use search what they have already.  They have an extensive list of books and it brings up the jacket cover and everything.  Very simple to type in the author or title, etc and find the book that you want.  Once you have found the correct title, you can either click "add to my books" and choose "read", "To read" or "currently reading" or you can just click the rating star that you want to give it and it will automatically add it to your list of titles that you have read.

They have 2 other options that I have not tried just yet.  To upload from your Amazon wish list and worse come to worse - to simply add a new title manually.

I have started the task of adding my insane list of books that I have already read, but you could just start fresh with what you reading now.

It also gives the option of seeing and sharing reviews of your friends, joining book discussions, reading reviews and more.  It is a neat system.  I figured that I would post mine for you via a widget they offer.  I have made a pledge on their website to read 20 books this year.  You can select any number you want and it tracks your progress.

Enjoy a good book!
Meagan

How to be Inspired

I took a trip to the library today.  I had originally planned to go to the storytime for my little guy, but since he was asleep, I spent the hour wandering the aisles.  I found so many treasures.

Whenever I look for new ideas, the best thing that I do is to visit the library or book store.  Combing the rows alone will show you how much is out there to learn.  I love to own books (obviously!  as per my previous posts), but a good library visit can unearth tons of neat ideas.  I came home with so many books that they told me that I was 2 way from my limit!

book glutton?

So, what did I get?
Monsters Eat Whiny Children (to read to my kids) :)
Cake Art (for cake inspiration)
Parties That Wow (for inspiration in planning parties)
Button and Stitch - Supercute Ways to Use Your Button Stash (for kids to make stuff)
Crafting Fun Stuff with a Crowd of Kids (for my mom's club)
A Zombie Ate my Cupcake (just because it was a funny cookbook)
Blonde Bombshell (to read)
Meet Bill dvd (never saw this one)
Angels & Demons dvd (I couldn't ever remember watching this one - unlike the rest of the world, I did not enjoy his 2 books, so I was not quick to run out and watch the movies)
Bionicle Graphic Novel (for my 10 yo)
Miss Spider Scavenger Hunt CD-Rom (for my 5 yo)
Piano for Kids CD-Rom (for my girls)
Neverwhere (to read)
Cirque de Freak bk 1 (for my 10 yo)
Peter& and Starcatchers (for my 10 yo)

It was such a nice time browsing the shelves that I may make a weekly visit.  Soon, I should have some new "How to" topics for you to enjoy.  So, the next time you need a little inspiration, take a trip to the library.
Meagan

How to Instill A Love of Reading

I have loved books ever since I was a toddler.  My mother tells stories of when I was 2 or 3 and she had walked in on me "reading" my favorite book.  She thought that she had a genius reader.  I had actually memorized the ENTIRE book, including when to turn the pages.

One of my favorite books was this one.  As you can see, it was WELL LOVED!  One of my nicknames was Mugs, so when my mom found this book, she got it for me.  It is all about a little mouse names Muggins.  I loved that every page had a ladybug and it was a game to try to find his little pal.
My mother read to me constantly.
 
Later, we moved a bunch and because of it, I missed out on learning phonics and I got behind on reading.  In 2nd grade, I finally put it all together and fell in love with the written word.  My dad, John, made a deal with me.  He said that he would get me any book that I would read.  I begged for this book at the bookstore.

I read the entire thing before he got to the car!  I loved this story about a little old lady who went around and found other people abandoned items and opened a store with them.  It may sound funny, but I wanted to be her.  I was going to grow up and be a shopping bag lady.  The idea that you could just find these "treasures" and then sell them really intrigued me.


So, how do you get your kids to love reading?  Read to them!  Read to them before bed, on the potty (while training), in the car, waiting at the doctor, anywhere.  Instead of letting them "plug" into some game or TV show, have them read.  What about for every minute they read, the get a minute of game time?

Another thing that helps my crew is a weekly visit to the local library.  Last summer's reading program that they offered was so great.  They checked off bingo squares by doing book activities and when they got a "Bingo", they got entered to win cool prizes.  My 7 yo increased her reading level by 1.5-2 grade levels and my 10 yo is reading 500 page books.  They beg to go now!
So, a love of reading starts with you!
Read on,

Meagan