Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is probably one of the best books I've ever read. I first read To Kill a Mockingbird in my sophomore year of high school. And it was amazing. I loved it when I read it then. But almost 10 years have passed, and my book club decided to read it, so I sat down Thursday and read it all over again.  And I think I loved it even more this time. There's basically three parts to this story: the first and main part is the childhood of the main character Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. This book was originally published in 1960, but it was set during the 1930s. Scout is a hell of a main character to come out of that time combination. She's sassy and relentless. She's damn near fearless. And she is exactly the opposite of what good society considers a little lady to be. The second part of the story is the tale of Scout's neighbor Boo Radley. He's a shut-in who has become more or less a town legend. Nobody has seen him i...

Ten Tiny Breaths by K. A. Tucker was a delightful, quick read. I enjoyed Tucker's character development and writing style quite a bit. The main character Kacey is relateable and not perpetually annoying, although sometimes Tucker overfocuses on what Kacey's thinking. It can seem a little obviously first person if that makes sense. The love interest, Trent, could use a little bit more development, I think, although he does stand independently. The relationship had a pretty decent build-up, but the end wrapped up a bit too quickly for my tastes. Overall, it's a great addition to the New Adult genre.

Hello Lovelies! So it's another installment of YA Rants, where I talk about things that drive me nutso in the book community. Today, I want to talk about consuming without contributing. Now, I know you might be thinking that I'm going to go into a lecture about giving back and not just taking information in but also expelling some type of creative force. But actually, I want to know the reverse. How do you read something without giving money/popularity to it? Or I guess, how far do you go in boycotting something? So let me get down to the nitty gritty of this post. There's this company called Full Fathom Five. It's run by James Frey (Yes that  James Frey. The one behind A Million Little Pieces.) Basically it's a Young Adult packaging company. There's a great article by NY Mag explaining the situation here . And there's a great blogpost by Debby about why she's boycotting Full Fathom Five books here .  I suggest you read those really quick before yo...

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a very interesting short story. I finished it yesterday, and even after mulling it over for a full 24 hours, I'm not sure how I felt about it. On the one hand, the atmosphere was well described. I was sitting outside in the sun, but I could picture the harsh yet beautiful New England winter setting. And hey, unrequited, disastrous love stories are sort of my thing. But on the other hand, this is so much Ethan's story. Like I wasn't even sure if his love was reciprocated until like 10 pages from the end. So I don't know that I would necessarily call it a love story at all. I didn't necessarily dislike the novel, I just really didn't like it either. Anyway, I read it for my book club, and I'm interested to see what type of conversation we have about it. Favorite Quote: "It was intoxicating to find such magic in his clumsy words, and he longed to try new ways of using it."

Hello Lovelies!! I'm back with another Top Ten Tuesday, as always hosted by The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme is Top Ten Books to be Read This Summer. So in no particular order: What about you, lovelies? Have you read any of these? Are any of these on your to-read list? Let me know in the comments!

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare is the third installment in the Mortal Instruments series. I could definitely tell that this was supposed to be the end of the series. A lot of the "major" moments were ruined for me because I knew there were three more books coming. It took me about 130 pages or so to get into this book. Partly it might have been because I read the last book about a year ago, so I was a little shaky on how things ended. But then it started to pick up and coalesce. Really only to come crashing down about a hundred pages after that. I called the plot "twist" basically immediately. And I told my friend that and she was like No, you can't have! It'll be so surprising! And I was like, maybe I'm wrong? But I also kept yelling at the characters constantly: You're an idiot! Of course that's not right! Duhhhhhhhhhhhh.  I don't really like stories that I can predict right away. I like to be able to ponder it out. Or if I do pre...

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a heart-wrenchingly beautiful tale of love and loss. It's about finding yourself when you think you've hit the lowest point possible. I kind of can't explain how much I liked this book. The summary doesn't make it sound like it'd be my cup of tea, and I know it's a classic, but sometimes classics have endured for stupid reasons. The Color Purple is not one of those classics. It's beautiful and wonderful and I wish I could reach through my computer screen and make everyone read it. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys epistolary novels with immense character development. Favorite Quotes (This is basically just going to be the whole book, sorry): "But I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive." "I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how come I know trees fear man." "I dream of murder, she say, I dream of murder sleep or wak...

I wanted to love The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling , but mostly I just felt ambivalent (and a little angry). I'll be the first to admit that I read it because Rowling wrote it. In fact, the reason it took me so long to read is because I didn't think the story itself sounded that enthralling, but come on, she created Harry Potter!! Of course, I'll love something she writes. Ehhh, maybe not. First of all, The Casual Vacancy starts really slow. Like glacial speed. Even 150 pages in, I was hoping it would pick up. Then there are the characters. If I was going to make any allusions to Harry Potter in the review of the book, it'd be this: The town of Pagford is full of Vernon Dursleys. It's like the worst place on earth.  I hope there isn't actually a Pagford (it's okay, I just checked and there isn't. Bless Google) because if there was no one would be able to live there. Frankly, part of the reason I kept reading was because I wanted these characters ...

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell is exactly the type of adorable book you want to read but never ever find yourself in. I mean, the premise of the book is that a man falls in love with a woman by reading her emails. Admittedly, he isn't entirely a creepy stalker--he does it because it's his job, but he begins to cross some lines fairly early on. This is the third (and final until July 8th!) of Rowell's books I've devoured in a single sitting, so maybe I was predisposed to love it, but you guys, I loved  it. Like I don't necessarily want someone reading all my emails (or texts since this is 2014 and no longer 1999 and emails are rarely used outside of businesses anymore), but if someone were to fall in love with me from reading all my blog posts, I'd be a little flattered and delighted. I love how real Rowell's characters are. That's something I mentioned in my review of Fangirl  and my review of Eleanor & Park . She writes people really really w...

Hello Lovelies! First, let me start by saying that I love John Green. He definitely falls into my favorite author category, and he's fantastic person. He is definitely 100% not at fault for the things that other people write and/or say about him. He frequently represents himself much better than he's given credit for. So I'm not really talking about John Green when I'm talking about the "John Green Thing". Instead, I'm talking about the plethora of articles that have come out with the release of The Fault in Our Stars (both originally as a book and then most recently as a film) which advocate John Green as a savior of young adult fiction and the best thing since sliced bread. I was thinking about that this morning because of the tweets which Maureen Johnson released. Maureen Johnson is a pro tweeter and also a fantastic young adult author. She frequently tweets about the inherent misogyny in the young adult world--things that we're so used to tha...

Hello Lovelies!! It's a very special Top Ten Tuesday because it's also my 100th post!! Woohoo!! Honestly this is probably the longest I've stuck with a hobby so I'm pretty excited about this milestone. So The Broke and the Bookish 's topic this week is.. I went with books that I own but haven't read yet which I would like to take to a beach (if I could get to one, hahaha, Montana is a landlocked state).  Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian If I Stay by Gayle Forman Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani Read My Lips by Teri Brown Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti So that's my list! It's heavy on contemporary fiction novels because summer brin...