Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

Hunter by Mercedes Lackey Published: September 1, 2015 Publisher: Disney-Hyperion Received: Egalley from Netgalley (Thanks Disney-Hyperion!) I was so excited for this book. I loved Lackey's Elemental Masters books and her Valdemar books, plus dragon (!!) on the cover of this one. What could go wrong??  Apparently a whole lot.  This seriously felt like a first novel of an untrained writer. I kept thinking to myself, maybe this is her first book written with a ghost writer? It did not read like a Lackey novel at all. Even the world-building was incredibly subpar compared to her other novels. It felt like she had the barest bones of an idea, and she figured since she was writing for a younger audience that she didn't need to put in as much as effort. I was so disappointed.  The premise is great: Hunter Joy has been secretly training in her mountain village for years, but has now been called to the big city (Apex) to join her Uncle and pick up train...

Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko Published: August 4, 2015 Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books Received: E-galley for review through Netgalley (Thanks Wendy Lamb Books!) Lizzie doesn't have friends at school--Miss Barstow's, a school for young ladies to learn how to become perfect wives. Lizzie would rather read books or accompany her doctor father on visits to patients. That's why Lizzie can recognize the problems with the quarantine of Chinatown. Nobody is wearing protective gear, for one thing. But nobody will admit that the plague is in San Francisco. What lengths will adults go to in order to keep the news of plague quiet? I remember reading Al Capone Does My Shirts  when I was younger, and I enjoyed it. This book left me feeling a little unfulfilled. It was good, but I also felt like Choldenko tried to encompass too many threads without deeply exploring any. I thought the book was about the plague, but really that's tangential. It only becomes ne...

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar Published: August 4th, 2015 Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Received: E-galley from Publisher--Thank you, Delacorte!! Tamaya Dhilwaddi is in the fifth grader. She loves school. She loves learning. She doesn't love walking home with her neighbor Marshall, who used to be her friend before starting seventh grade. Marshall's been dealing with a bully. And when Marshall tries to take a shortcut through the wood to avoid his bully, that's when everything falls apart. I loved Holes --but then again, who doesn't? And in comparison to Holes , Fuzzy Mud  falls dreadfully short. Sachar's writing is equally as fantastic. However, the plot doesn't weave together as perfectly as Holes . Fuzzy Mud  leaves a lot to be desired plot-wise. There are a lot of unanswered questions.  Overall, I found Fuzzy Mud  to be an entertaining read. It would be a decent book for middle-grade readers and fans of environmentally based ...

Mastiff by Tamora Pierce provides a less than satisfactory ending to The Hunt Records. So, before I turn this into a rant, let me give the people who care a quick recap. Beka Cooper is one of the finest Dogs in the Provost's Guard. It's been three years since the end of Bloodhound, and she has only become more renowned with her partners, Tunstall, and Achoo, her scent hound. This book features the three being joined by a Mage to find something that's been taken from the rulers of the realm. MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. I seriously can't talk about this book without spoiling it, because I am so furious. First of all, the book opens with Beka's boyfriend/fiancee being buried. He has never shown up in the previous books and it's very very jarring. Then we find out that she didn't love him in the first place? And he was sort of abusive? And we're supposed to believe that Beka would have stayed with him and let it get to the point wher...

I was a wee bit underwhelmed by Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. Maybe it's that I grew up in Montana where the most exciting night you can have involves Civil War Beer Pong and costumes or getting your truck stuck in a ditch. (This may be two sides of the same coin, although not with most of my friends.) Maybe it's that I found Norah annoying but weirdly relateable? Or maybe it's that I apparently don't know (or like???) enough "Punk" music? I have no idea. I guess I just was expecting so much more. And it's been several years since I've seen the movie, but I really remember liking it quite a lot. So I'm not sure why the book just didn't do it for me. Although if I went back and watched the movie now, I'd probably be angry with things they changed. I guess there's no pleasing me. (But if you've been around, you know that's the case, haha)

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."

Specials by Scott Westerfeld is the third book in the Uglies series.  According to my Goodreads (uhmmm friend me ? if you want?), it took me over four months to finish this book. It's 384 pages. It's not a hard read. So why did it take me so long that I could have read 3 pages a day and finished it in the same time? I mean, it talks about self-harm and it talks about consent regarding one's own body, I should be crazy about this book! But I'm not. I actually don't really like this series much at all. But I'm determined to see it through at this point. I don't think it addresses being female well. I think Tally has a huge case of special snowflake syndrome. By this time in the series, I'm sick to death of her going back and forth on whether she wants the cure or doesn't want it. I'm sick of her and Shay's relationship. I don't think it's an accurate view of female friendships. I'm sick of Tally and her boy of the ...

TW: self-harm Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn was definitely a novel outside of my normal reading habits. Camille Preaker is the protagonist of this novel--she's a cutter who recently finished a stay at a mental health institution. She's gone back to work and as one of her first major assignments, she's sent back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri. There's been two little girl murdered and Camille's editor wants to be the first "major" newspaper in on the story. Camille does not have a good relationship with her family. Frankly, Camille does not have a good relationship with herself. She's stopped cutting, but she's turned to alcoholism instead. Camille has no respect for her own body--I mean, I am all for doing what you want with your own body, but only when it isn't a choice made with a self-destructive intent. Camille takes drugs and sleeps with people with the intent to hurt her own body. I wasn't a fan of Sharp Objects. I d...

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes  is a memoir of Mayes' adventure in buying an Italian villa.  This was my book club's pick for this month, and it's not something I'd usually read, so I'm grateful for the venture outside of my norm. However, it wasn't my favorite. A large part of that's because it's dated. She's talking about the years between 1990-95 which is now 20 years ago. Times have changed. With the prevalence of internet and cell phones, I can't imagine that getting a house and living in a house in Italy hasn't changed.  Her descriptions of the calmness of Italy is infectious, however. I could feel myself relaxing, imagining the smell of lemons and picking herbs in a bright sunlit garden. It made me a little homesick for summer -- especially since I read this in two "snow days" that I had off from work. I was cold and I wanted sun. Mayes is fantastic at describing the way sun feels.  She spends a lo...

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is not my favorite "classic" novel I've ever read. I've often heard this novel grouped with the novels by the Brontes and the Austens, however I think it falls very short of either of those. I didn't find any of the characters very relateable until the very end. Maxim is aloof and distant. The Narrator is really nothing short of pathetic. And Rebecca sounds like the very worst sort of person imaginable. Even the side characters are turn-offs. The only character I felt was a decent person was Ben. Now, I know you all are screaming, Hayley, your favorite book is Wuthering Heights!! How is that any different?? Well, I feel that the characters in Wuthering Heights have redeeming qualities (primarily their love for other people). In Rebecca, the love errs on the wrong side of infatuation, and it's very disturbing as it appears to be very one-sided. There were several quotes I liked: "We can never go back, that much is ...

Shattering Glass  was a really interesting read. It's the story of a group of friends in high school (four boys) who led by their ringleader, Rob Haynes, decide to make the least popular boy in school, Simon Glass, Class Favorite. Each chapter is started with a quote by a character from after the story takes place. And you're told from the beginning that something bad is going to happen. I couldn't quite figure out what was going to happen by the end, but I did figure out enough that the ending didn't really surprise me. I guess I was never really "popular" in school, but my school didn't fixate on cliques to quite the same extent which this high school does. And it's hard to tell if that's an accurate reflection of life--y'know media distorting what actually occurs in high schools--or if I just happened to luck out by growing up in middle-class suburbia Montana. This book, however, does focus pretty strongly on the concept of populari...