The Unbecoming of Mara Deyer

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Pub: 2011; Simon & Schuster
Pages: 452
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Series

I'm probably one of the last to have read this book, so I won't say ohemgee that ending?! Because that's what EVERYONE said and if EVERYONE said it then we all know bout that ending.

Yah hear me?

But YOU GUYS there's something I have to admit to and I might be on my own lil' biblio-island but I have completely forgotten EVERYTHING about this book.

For realz.

Like, I was reading the summary from Goodreads and NOTHING was coming back to me.  So then I started googling spoilers and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and still naaahsiiing.  Are you kidding me?  I know that I've been on a reading rampage but something should jog my memory.

Zilch.

Then, I began questioning whether or not I actually read the book.  But sho' enough, I have a start and finish date on Goodreads.

So what gives.  How is it that this novel has impressed so many individuals and I seriously could read it over again a week later with nada recollection.

*shrug*

After struggling with this for some time I have a bit of vague wispy memories of closing the book thinking oh yeah, I'll read the second one.  But that's about all I can come up with. 

Bruiser

Title: Bruiser
Author: Neal Shusterman
Pub: 2011; HarperTeen
Pages: 328
Genre: Young Adult, Magical Realism

This book! Man.  I had no idea what to think.  S'okay; Bruiser is this tough melancholic loner that has caught Bronte's eye.  Bronte being the sister to the very alpha-male jock, Tennyson.  This is definitely not acceptable.  I mean, Bruiser's name is Bruiser. Duh.  But still, Bronte's a fixer and she sees something deep within and wants to bring it out.

On a completely personal side note.  I TOTALLY get Bronte.  I so would have done the same in high school.

The thing is, Brew (a more human name once the two realize that he's well, human) has a deep secret which forces him not to let his guard down.  He takes on the from the people he cares about.

How clever of a plotline is that?

The book is told in multiple characters, which I'm usually not a fan of because MOST OF THE TIME each character sounds the same.  And here, maybe they do.  I don't know. I wasn't paying much attention because the whole premise was wicked cool.  I mean, it throws in the question of codependency and what one person feels and who is actually feeling it and MAN!

I loved me some Brew.

Although sometimes I wanted to punch him because really there's only so much someone should take.

The book kinda reminded me of Powder.  Did anyone see that?  I couldn't even tell you if it was a great movie or not seeing as I saw it as a kiddo.  But it did leave an impression on me.

Another totally awesome and wonderful thing?  I got to MEET Neil Shusterman about the same time I was reading this book.  I stumbled upon his tour at the local B&N, which NEVER HAPPENS.  Seriously.  Authors are afraid of Florida, I think.  He's such a cool guy and read from his newest book UnWholly.  

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Good morning all.  We're expecting a gorgeous day here in Florida, mid seventies with plenty of sun.  D and I are going over to her family's house so there will be plenty of food, people, and wine.  Later, we're gonna head out to catch an evening movie (My mom doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving.  She's a diehard vegetarian/animal activist.  It's a touchy subject, so we gave her chocolate cake. Ha!)

Most of you who follow of me on twitter know that I've labeled 2012 thus far The Worst Year Evhar so I'm thankful that it's almost over with (even though logically I know that by the calendar moving into the 2013 it won't necessarily cause the Universe to miraculously give me a break, but it's comforting to think of a 'start over').

There's plenty of other things that I'm thankful for of course: my health, my family, my love, my cats, my books, my friends, you guys.  It just doesn't seem so original though, ya know?

I hope for a fairly quiet Thanksgiving weekend.  Sure, there will be bike rides and grading of papers (ugh, why did I postpone that endeavor?!) but I also plan to curl up on the couch with a stack of YA books and Netflix Bones (1).

Therefore, without further introduction...I'll be participating in

I'll be updating on Twitter with #thankfulreading . (Thanks Jenn for hosting!) Currently I'm reading Pure and it is freaky as all get out.  Seriously, I have a feeling I'm going to end up having nightmares about pieces of my bookshelves merging with my body. (Read the book; you'll understand).

Aiiight.  We have a bit of a drive.  I hope everyone enjoys their day, eats plenty, sleeps lots, and reads more!

__________________
(1) I'm almost done with Bones via Netflix and am looking for a new tele series to start.  Suggestions?  What's been your favorite discovery on Netflix?

TSS - Disappearing Act

Well hello there! Inadvertently I dropped off of the blogging world and had I not already scheduled reviews I would REALLY have been MIA. It's weird because I don't necessarily feel the guilt that I've seen other bloggers express BUT I do feel a certain level of disconnect. Like you guys are MY PEOPLE and I need a certain level of interaction to feel complete in my reading lifestyle.

I've just been so exhausted all. I mean SERIOUSLY. Like last weekend we had a small party and I totally left D to entertain about halfway through so I could go to bed and sleep. THEN I slept ALL Saturday and most of Sunday.  There have been major changes on the work front. New principal, looking for new staff, new expectations coming (I'm sure) plus the normal neurotic data driven discipline that education has turned into makes me for a very overwhelmed camper. Having anxiety issues and panic attacks only adds to the rhythm of terror. Ha! I realize I'm being rather dramatic, but I would really love to go off somewhere and chant with some monks.

Om.

The good thing though? With all of this hibernation I've been doing mad crazy reading. Books read that will eventually get reviewed:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Skinny by Donna Cooner
The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Easy by Tammara Webber
Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Existence by Abbi Glines
Predestined by Abbi Glines
Ceaseless by Abbi Glines
Matched by Ally Condie
Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma
Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

I also have a whole stack of young adult books waiting for me while on break (Yay for a week off!)

Soon I shall be out of this funk. But for now, I'm just hoping to make it to the end of 2012 without any further fractures. 

Fingerprints of You

Title: Fingerprints of You
Author: Kristen-Paige Madonia
Pub: 2012; Simon and Schuster for Young Readers
Pages: 272
Genre: Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult (?)

Think you had it rough as a teenager?  Try living Lemon's life:

I mean, first, your NAME is LEMON. (Strike one, yes?)  Then you fool around with this tattoo artist that your mom has the hots for - a lil' bowchickabowwow - and lo and behold baby coming soon. Which opens a whole lot of daddy issues since yours has been MIA since birth.

Oh and it of course it doesn't help that your mom has her very own commitment issues and stability is a word you only know via the dictionary.

Yup.  That's Lemons' world at the tumultuous age of seventeen.  So what's the solution?  Of course a road trip clear across the country to Cali with your bestie to seek out your pops and get ANSWERS to life's most difficult questions.

This was a coming of age story like none other.  And seriously, can you look at the cover again?  Le gorgeous.  My buddy Fizzy Jilly gabbed about this book and I was all - ooooooh shiny and also that story line sounds fascinating. 

And about halfway through it I finally figured out what vague film atmosphere it reminded me of.  How many of you remember the flick Mermaids with Cher? Winona Ryder? It totally had that vibe going for it: Mother working through her own issues that cause daughter to have issues similar to deal with which eventually leads to aha moments as all grow up and become a closer family.

Well done Madonia because here the characters are pretty quirky.  And who can resist a main character who is a book nerd?  I mean, holla, can't we all relate?  PLUS I love the descriptions of San Fran.  Duuuude, I want to go there like yesterday.  The food! The stores! The scenery! Loved all of the details.

Final thoughts: While typing this up I realized that the book was published by S&S for Young Readers which is interesting because while reading the book itself and EVEN THOUGH the protagonist is a teenager, I never ASSOCIATED it as a Young Adult book.  I know there are some serious thoughts in that statement because first I was all well, it didn't read like fluff in the way that most coming of age young adult fic does but as soon as I THOUGHT that I felt guilty, like, YA contemporary is all teddy bears and text messages.  Which I know it's not.  But still.  I can't deny that thought.  So I should ponder this a bit more.  Why I disassociated this as a YA book even though our girl is obvs a teenager.  If you've read it, any thoughts to help me figure that one out?

The Beautiful Between

Title: The Beautiful Between
Author: Alyssa Sheinmel
Pub: Knopf for Young Readers; 2010
Pages: 192
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult, Fairy-tale-ish


"If high school were a fairy-tale kingdom, Connelly Sternin would be Rapunzel"

That is exactly why I picked up this book because I am a self confessed fairy-tale retelling addict.  I also find that it's difficult to find contemporary retellings.  Or even adult retellings.  Are there any other there that I'm missing?  Help please. 

I also rated this a three-star as soon as I finished reading it, which means that I had to have dug it right?  Well, I'm (trying) to write this review a couple of months later and I can't remember ANYTHING about this book.

So I cheated and read some other reviews.  There's a vague memory in my brain somewhere.  Connelly's father died but she doesn't know why nor does it ever occur to her to ask her mom.  There's this popular boy (Jeremy) at their private richy high school who befriends her and he's going through issues because his sister is sick.  They form a friendship, not a romance, which is a plus because there's just not that many books out there filled with boy/girl friendships when the boy/girl are actually interested in opposite gendered luuurve.  (IE - in real life, folks, you don't have to be gay to have friends with the opposite sex).

Still.  I can't remember much about this one.  

Maybe I should change my rating from a three to a one because of that.

Between Shades of Gray (Audio)

Title: Between Shades of Gray
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Narrator: Emily Klein
Pub: 2011; Penguin Audio
Pages: 344
Audio Length: 7 hours; 47 minutes
Genre: Young Adult; Historical Fiction

I obviously understand why this book made such noise in the literary community, both young adult and not.

While listening to Between Shades of Gray I kept thinking, man where have I heard something so familiar? Of course it's pretty obvious.  Young Lina's story of being a girl in the midst of war mirrors all of the stories that we heard about the Jews in Nazi Germany.

The difference here?  Lina wasn't Jewish.  Or German.  She was Lithuanian and it wasn't Hitler who ordered her family to be taken from their homes to die in work camps, but Stalin.

I have a colleague at work who is Russian.  Well, she's not exactly Russian, only kinda.  What I mean by this is, her country (Ukraine) was taken by Russia and so she identifies with both.  She's the one who recommended this book to me.  Ignorantly, I told her that I had long since reached my fill of World War II books (don't judge, my grandma lived in East Germany during the war so I grew up hearing her first hand experiences).

I listened to this book over the summer and IMMEDIATELY upon returning to work apologized to her about my cavalier position when she first said I should read it.  She was surprised and it obviously didn't keep HER up at night like it did me.

But folks...this book is Important.  Because it tells the story that we don't really spend time listening to, and that's about Stalin and his malicious reign over Russia and how so many people lost their homes because they thought differently.

Because of THAT this book is Important.  My mouth was agape most of the time.

As far as the audio goes....the narration was superb.  The accents were believable (possibly real?) but didn't make me twitch in the ears trying to figure out what was being said. 

The Brides of Rollrock Island

Title: The Brides of Rollrock Island
Author: Margo Lanagan
Pub: David Fickling Books; 2012
Pages: 320
Genre: Fantasy, Legend, Fairy-talish,
Etc: props up to the publisher and NetGalley!

There are very few books where I fell NO URGE whatsoever to explain what they're about and instead just skip along and singsong "Read this! Read this!".  Because here's the thing, I could tell you that it's about this secluded island where the men marry seals, but that wouldn't make sense would it?  Because everything in my head, if I heard that statement, would say "Whoah, that's a little too far-fetched for me right now..." So if that IS what you've heard, ignore it.  Seriously.  Get one of those sponges and wipe that spot away from your memory.

This book is magical.  Lanagan cleverly shares tidbits of the legend through various narrators, each one gliding you closer to the big picture.  There's moments of depression, of vengeance, and utter despair.

The beauty of the story is in the unravel.

Shelter

Title: Shelter
Author: Harlan Coben
Narrator: Nick Podehl
Pub: 2012; Putnam Juvenile
Audio: Brilliance Audio
Length: 7 Hours
Pages: 304
Genre: Audio, Mystery, Series, Tweens, Young Adult


LOVED THIS BOOK.

And I totally picked it up because it was a short audio, which happens to be ALL that my fuzzy brain was capable of listening to after the #italong debacle.

Also, I trust Coben as a mystery/suspense writer because I've liked both of the adult books that I've read.  Plus, he's pretty darn prolific, so that has to mean something, right? Of course, part of me was a bit weary because it's like singers/musicians who go into acting....sometimes they just shouldn't.  And maybe this would be the case for Coben's transition into middle grades. 

Ummm, I had NOTHING to worry about.  This book is hardcore.  Hardcore enough that part of me actually wished I had a kid of my own to tell him to read it.

So what's it about? Well, here's the thing...I don't want to give up too many of the deets because after the initial disc there were plenty of times I just had to take a "whoa" moment.  But, briefly.  Mickey is living with his uncle because his dad died in a car accident and his mom's kinda went off the deep end after his death.  Mickey has this hottie of a girlfriend named Ashley and things don't suck as bad as they did.  But then, Ashley disappears.  Like, her parents don't even acknowledge her.  So Mickey is all hell bent on finding her which leads him to a new friend, Emie (who knows how it's spelled because I was listening, but she is a rock star!) and Spoon (who is much more like the Robin side kick to Mickey's Batman superness).  The enter the underworld of this town and there are moments when I feel like Stabler (SVU peeps) is going to show up.

And the ending.  Oh the ending.  My mouth dropped and I wanted to hit my head on the steering wheel because THIS ENDING is the reason why I hate finding series because I want to know what happens next NOW and count.

How about that audio?  Once again I'm winning in the narration department.  Nick Podehl did an amazing job changing his voice in believable ways.  There's even a thug with a lisp and it works!  Also kudos for a male doing a decent female voice. 

Shiver (Audio)

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Narrator: Jenna Lamia & David Ledoux
Pub: Scholastic Press;2009
Pages: 392
Audio Length: 9 hours and 44 minutes
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Series, Young Adult

I am not a big werewolf fan.  I can totally get into the vamp scene.  After all THEY'RE sparkly.  But werewolves are right up there with zombies.  ESPECIALLY if we're talking romance.  I mean...animals or the undead?  No thank you.

So. I had no desire whatsoever to read the Shiver trilogy.  (1) It's about wolves and (2) it's a trilogy.  But then I listened to The Scorpio Races which moved me from a horse-hating fool who ended up eating her own words and adoring it and I figured if there was anyone out there who would convince me that werewolves don't suck, it would be Ms. Stiefvater.

And I guess she sorta did.  There is a huge truth in the fact that Stiefvater researches her folklore and then takes those amazing stories and turns them into her own.  Because of THAT, I utterly dig the 'behind the scenes' of these weres, their mythos was pretty okay.

Still.  She didn't sell me enough to necessarily want to finish the trilogy.  I'm pretty okay with how the story ended in the first book and although it's not as though life is resolved, I can walk away from it peacefully.

And the narration? Definitely a winner.  I enjoy the two narrators for alternating chapters. I don't think it would have been as fantastic without that element.