2011 End of Year Book Survey

Last year, I participated in The Perpetual Page-Turner's End of 2010 Survey (you can see my post here), and this year, she has updated and expanded this survey, and I'm excited to participate again!

So here they are, my answers to the 2011 End of Year Book Survey:


1. Best Book You Read In 2011?
I read quite a few books that I LOVED this year, and I can't really narrow it down to just one, so I'll narrow it down to five:  Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Maze Runner series by James Dashner, Hourglass by Myra McEntire, and Divergent by Veronica Roth.  All YA SF.  (And yes, I realize this is actually 10 books, since the Uglies series has four books and The Maze Runner series has 3 books, but I can't whittle it down any more than this.)

2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?

Probably Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  It was one of my picks for book club, and I was expecting it to be a lot more than it was.  I still enjoyed it, just not as much as I had hoped I would.  

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?

I guess that would have to be Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.  Several of my friends had read it and loved it, and one friend basically made me borrow it.  ;)  I'm not normally someone who loves Chick Lit, and this is YA Chick Lit, so I thought I would be groaning and rolling my eyes the whole time, but I ended up loving it!  I also really loved the companion novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and I look forward to reading the third companion, Isla and the Happily Ever After.

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2011?

I definitely think that would be Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  I received an ARC from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway, and not only was I ecstatic to have won an ARC, but I really, really LOVED that book!  I can't wait for the sequel!

5. Best series you discovered in 2011?
Well, the three series that I read in their entirety this year were The Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld and The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner (although he's releasing a prequel to this series next year, so I guess I didn't read the ENTIRE series).  I really enjoyed The Hitchhiker's guide series, although I didn't enjoy the last few books as much as the first couple.  But I LOVED the Uglies series and The Maze Runner trilogy!  I highly recommend both!  I also read most of The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa (I read the first book, The Iron King, in 2010 but re-read it and then read all the other books this year, and I'm currently reading the 4th book, The Iron Knight) and I really enjoyed those as well.  But I've also read quite a few books this year that are the first books of series, and the other books have yet to come out, like Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Divergent by Veronica Roth, and Hourglass by Myra McEntire.  Then I also read the first books of a few series that have sequels that have been published, like The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, The Line by Teri Hall, Alanna by Tamora Pierce, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Storm Front by Jim Butcher, and Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder.  I enjoyed all these books and hope to read some of the rest of each of these series next year.

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?

Scott Westerfeld, James Dashner, and John Green.  I'd add Amy Kathleen Ryan, Beth Revis, Myra McEntire and Veronica Roth to that list, but I've only read one of their books each, so I'll save their names until after I've read more of their books next year.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?
I had never read any Steam Punk, so Boneshaker by Cherie Priest would be a good answer for this question.  Also, I hadn't read a lot of YA Contemporary before, and I enjoyed all of John Green's books (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson).  And I also hadn't read much Adult Chick Lit/Romance before, and I thoroughly enjoyed One Day by David Nicholls.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and all of the books in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.

9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?

Well, I don't really know the answer to this one.  I mean, I was looking forward to The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, but it wasn't like I couldn't wait for them to come out.  I think the books that I most wanted to get my hands on this year were The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure, books 2 and 3 respectively in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.  Once I read The Maze Runner, I had to have those other books ASAP!

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2011?
That would have to be Hourglass by Myra McEntire.  The next book in the series, Timepiece, has a great cover too!  I'm excited to read that one next year!

Photo courtesy of yareads.com

Photo courtesy of hypable.com

11. Most memorable character in 2011? 

Hmm, I can't really think of any one character that stood out.  I enjoyed most of the protagonists, but I always find myself really loving side characters.  Like Bob the Skull in Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2011?
All of John Green's books.  He is such a beautiful writer, and he knows how to craft a sentence in a way that I can only dream of.  Plus, he's better at grammar than I will ever be, and I'm okay with that.

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2011?
I would say Night by Elie Wiesel, but I had to basically trick myself into believing that it was fiction so that I could get through it, so it didn't hit me as hard as it might have.  But it still was an amazing story, and one that everyone should read.

14. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2011 to finally read?
All the Hitchhiker's Guide books, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 1984 by George Orwell, Night by Elie Wiesel, and The Giver by Lois Lowry.  Most of those qualified for my Off the Shelf challenge, though, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading them.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2011?
Hmm, I hardly write down specific quotes except for the books that I read for book club, and I couldn't find any great quotes in my notes from this year.  But I did star one part from John Green's Paper Towns that I really loved because it remind me of my time in high school:

"I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks above various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock.  I'd had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise.  If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years."

16. Book That You Read In 2011 That Would Be Most Likely To Reread In 2012?
Probably Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  Or Divergent by Veronica Roth, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, or Hourglass by Myra McEntire, all because the second books in these series come out next year, and I'll probably want to reread the first books before reading the next ones.  Also I can see myself rereading The Maze Runner trilogy before the prequel, The Kill Order, comes out.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!
Um, The Maze Runner series.  I really want one of my friends to read this series so we can go to lunch or dinner or something and talk all about it.

Book Blogging/Reading Life in 2011 (optional)

I'm not going to answer the questions in this part because, even though I have a blog where I review books sometimes, it isn't very consistent and reviewing books isn't the only thing I do on the blog.  Next year, however, I plan on writing a lot more reviews.

But I do want to answer one question from this section:

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yes!  I set one goal of reading 35 books this year (I read 30 books last year - it was the first year I really started reading A LOT, so I wanted to at least surpass that number) and, as I'm writing this, I've read 76 books so far this year, and I'll probably finish one more before the year ends.  So I read more than twice my goal!  

I also participated in the 2011 Off the Shelf Challenge by Bookish Ardour, where I challenged myself to read 15 books that were sitting on my shelf prior to the beginning of this year that I had yet to read.  And I completed that challenge as well!  I think that's pretty good for my first challenge, and my first year of setting any kind of reading goal!


Looking Ahead...

1. One Book You Didn't Get To In 2011 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2012?

Well, I have lots of books to read next year, and several of them are kind of prioritized as to when I will read them, so the books that I answer for this question might not be the first books I read in 2012, but I will definitely get to them.  That said, the books I didn't read this year but will read next year are Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire, The Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2012?

I'm definitely looking forward to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  My friends and I are even traveling out of state to go to his book tour!  It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait!  I'm also really psyched for A Million Suns by Beth Revis, Insurgent by Veronica Roth, Timepiece by Myra McEntire, and Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  Oh, and The Kill Order by James Dashner.

3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2012?
My friend Courtney at Abducted by Books is hosting a reading challenge next year, called the 15,000 Page Challenge.  The goal is in the title - read15,000 pages in 2012.  And she's going to give away a couple of prizes!  Since I'll be participating in this challenge, I'll need to blog a lot more to show my updated page counts.  So I plan on trying to review many more books next year, which is also a nice challenge for myself.  My blog will hopefully grow because of it!

So there they are, my answers to the 2011 End of Year Book Survey.  I apologize for the extremely long post.  It's so hard to have just one answer for most of the questions!  Let me know in the comments if you completed the survey as well, and I'll hop on over to your blog and take a look!  Happy reading in 2012!

"Off the Shelf" Reading Challenge Complete!

This was the first reading challenge I've participated in, and thankfully, with a month to spare, I've completed it!


I took the Off the Shelf Challenge by Bookish Ardour, who is hosting several challenges next year as well, including the 2012 Off the Shelf Challenge.  Go here to check out those challenges!


So for this challenge, I chose to read 15 books that I owned that had just been sitting there, waiting to be read for months or even years.  I took the challenge quite seriously, and all of the books that I read for this challenge were purchased before 2011.  Which was hard, because I was given LOTS of books this year by a couple of friends who were cleaning up their shelves, and I bought quite a few as well - more than I normally would have because of Borders closing.  But I've read lots of other books this year, not just the 15 for this challenge.


And I prevailed!  Here is a complete list of the 15 books that I read for this challenge, with links to my reviews:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
7. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
8. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
9. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
10. Night by Elie Wiesel
11. Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set by J.K. Rowling
12. Harry Potter:  Film Wizardry by Brian Sibley
13. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
14. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
15. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book One) by Rick Riordan

Now, a few of those books might seem like really easy reads.  And some of them really were.  But regardless of how long or short, easy or hard, these were all books that have been on my bookshelf for a while, and I've wanted to read them, but never did for one reason or another.  And now, I'm glad to say that I've read them!  Thanks, Bookish Ardour, for hosting a challenge that I really needed and enjoyed!

Next year I won't be participating in this challenge again, but I'll be doing a completely new challenge by my good friend Courtney from Abducted by Books!  She'll be hosting the 15,000 Page Challenge.  The goal is to read 15,000 pages in 2012, and she'll be giving away prizes for the person who reaches the goal by reading the least amount of books (like if someone reads 15 1,000-page books) and also to the person who reaches the goal by reading the most amount of books (like if someone reads 100 150-page books).  I'm going for the latter option, and I've already got tons of books picked out!  That prize is mine!  (Maybe.)

Book 15/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Photo courtesy of bookwormsreadmorebooks.com

For my 15th and final book to read for this year's Off the Shelf Challenge, I read Book One of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series:  The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.


I had been wanting to read this series for a while, but never got around to it, although I had seen the movie adaptation of this novel.  I kind of wished I hadn't seen the movie first, because I knew some of the ending, and I am one of those people who does NOT like to be spoiled.  But I still enjoyed reading the book and I hope to read the rest soon - I'll definitely read the rest of the books before seeing the movies.


There were quite a few differences between the book and the movie (that I can remember), but I knew this going in, because a friend of mine, Tracy, as well as my husband, had read the book and told me about a few of the differences.  I liked the movie, but I enjoyed the book a lot more.  I think that's normally how it goes, though.


There were also a lot of similarities between this book and the Harry Potter series, and I am a total HP nerd.  But I wasn't irritated by the similarities.  I think it's just the nature of the stories.  Both involve quests, both involve boys who realize that they are part of a different world, and both boys are the keys to saving that new world, as well as the rest of the world, from destruction by a power-hungry bad guy.  So yes, there are quite a few similarities.  But these are two different, interesting, adventuresome series in their own right.  I LOVE the Harry Potter series with a passion, and I really enjoyed the first installment of Percy Jackson.  But, who knows?  I may grow to love this series, too, once I've read the other books.  However, I don't know that any book or series will ever surpass my love for Harry Potter.

Book 14/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Yea!  I'm almost done with my Off the Shelf Challenge!  Just one more to go!

Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

So for my second-to-last book for this challenge, I decided to go ahead and wrap up the Hitchhiker's Guide series by reading Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams.


I didn't like this book as much as some of the others in the series, but I still enjoyed it.  I really liked the bit that dealt with Elvis, and I liked the end, although I would assume that many fans might not like it so much.  I don't want to go into too much detail for those who haven't yet read the book, but I will say that this installment lacked the pep and humor that is abundant throughout the rest of the series.  Yes, there was humor, along with the seemingly random tangents that Mr. Adams loves to take, but I just didn't feel like there was as much humor in this one as the others.


I really enjoyed this series as a whole, although the first two books, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, were my favorites of the five.


On a side note, I finished reading Mostly Harmless mere minutes before a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook my whole house.  Now, mind you, I live in Oklahoma.  We don't get earthquakes very often here.  Well, at least not the kind you feel.  We got one about a year ago, but it was much smaller.  And apparently I missed one while I was asleep this morning, but it was also smaller.  No damage as far as I can tell, but it was still very unnerving!  And, if you've read Mostly Harmless, you'll understand that reading the last few pages and then being in an earthquake can really creep you out!

Book 13/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Photo courtesy of wikifirsteditions.com

In an attempt to get another book out of the way for the Off the Shelf Challenge before the start of NaNoWriMo, I chose a small, quick read:  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.

I have always loved the story of Oz, and really enjoyed the classic film from 1939, The Wizard of Oz.  But the 1985 sequel, Return to Oz, was my favorite movie as a child, and remains one of my favorite movies to this day.  I also really love The Wicked Years series by Gregory Maguire:  Wicked:  The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West; Son of a Witch; A Lion Among Men; and Out of Oz.  I knew that Out of Oz was going to be released soon, but I thought it was sometime next year.  Just now, while looking it up for this post, I found out that the release date is November 1st!  Um, I know what I want for Christmas!!!  And how funny is it that I read this book and wrote this post right before the release of that book!  I've never seen the musical Wicked, which is based off of the first book from Maguire's series, but hopefully I can see it someday!

Anyway, I don't think I ever read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid, even though I was such a big fan of Return to Oz.  And, reading it now, I was surprised to find that it is so different from the 1939 movie adaptation!  I mean, I know that something is always lost when a book is adapted into a movie, but for some reason, I didn't think it would be that way with this book.  But there were plenty of differences.  First of all, there is much more to the story than in the movie (and of course that is to be expected).  Also, there is no mention of it all being Dorothy's dream.  At least, it wasn't in this book.  L. Frank Baum went on to write several more Oz stories, so some of the things in the movie could have been from those books.  Also, the shoes Dorothy gets from the Wicked Witch of the East were "silver shoes," not "ruby slippers."  I'm assuming that for the film, since they were using the new technology of Technicolor, they wanted the shoes to stand out, so they made them bright red instead of silver.

Also, I was pleased to see that some of the characters and things that Gregory Maguire used in his retellings were actually in this story, like the character of Boq, the Winkies, and the Quadlings.  I don't think these were mentioned in the film, and I always assumed that Maguire had made them up himself.  So it was really nice to see that Maguire had obviously done a lot of research before writing his novels.  I always assumed that he had done a huge amount of research, but I think he probably did a lot more than most people realize.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I'm glad I finally read it, although I really think that I like Gregory Maguire's stories better, and I'm looking forward to reading Out of Oz!

Book 12/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

NaNoWriMo is coming up (in one week!), and I wanted to try to get a couple of my books read for the Off the Shelf Challenge before heading into a month full of writing and not much reading. I still had 4 books left to read for this challenge, and the deadline is at the end of the year, so I really needed to get to it!

Photo courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

I finally finished Harry Potter Film Wizardry by Brian Sibley, which I blogged about back in October of last year (you can see that post here - I was trying out a new meme called "I Want" Wednesday - boy, that meme really lasted on my blog, didn't it?).  I've had Film Wizardry on my Goodreads currently-reading list all year long, although I haven't been reading it all year.  It's not a hard book to read; it just isn't like a novel, where you can tear through the pages.  I (obviously) took my sweet time reading it.


Film Wizardry is a gorgeous book full of artists' renderings, photos, and inside information on what went into creating all eight Harry Potter films.  Since I'm a die-hard fan of the Harry Potter books, and a huge fan of the films, I found the book to be really fascinating.  It's crazy how much time and effort goes into everything in the films, from the storyboards and concept art, to the wardrobes and makeup, to the intricate set designs and special effects.

Another thing that I really love about this book is that there are several items included within the pages that you can actually remove from envelopes and hold in your hands:  a replica of Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, catalogs for Borgin and Burkes and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (those don't actually come out - they're attached to the book), a program for the 422nd Quidditch World Cup (also attached), and my personal favorite - a fold-out copy of The Maruader's Map, among others.


This book is a great read for any fan of the Harry Potter films, and I'm glad to have it my collection.

Book 11/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

There are a couple of books that have been on my Goodreads "currently reading" shelf all year long.  I haven't actually been reading them all year; I simply set them aside while I read tons of other books.  I got both books late last year, and even though they haven't been on my physical book shelf for that long, they still count for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, since they were on my shelf before I started said challenge.


The two books in question were the Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set (which actually has two books, but I counted them as one), and Harry Potter:  Film Wizardry.  I'm still reading Film Wizardry, so I'll leave that one for a later post.

Photo courtesy of judyoz.com

Last year, my book club had a Christmas party where, instead of reading a specific book that month, we had a potluck dinner and played board games and had a gift exchange.  We all bought a book under a certain amount, and the idea was to play Dirty Santa, where you can steal one another's gifts.  Apparently we're bad at that game, because not much stealing went on (I don't know if anyone stole anything, actually), and I loved the gift I brought so much, that when it was my turn to choose a gift to open, I opened my own!  And that gift was the Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set.  



The Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set includes two books that are featured in the Harry Potter novels:  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Quidditch Through the Ages.  J.K. Rowling wrote both and proceeds from the sale of the box set went to a fund for needy children through the charity Comic Relief.  


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a book written by Newt Scamander that Harry and all the other first years were required to purchase in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  It reads like a textbook, which is maybe why I didn't like it as much as Quidditch Through the Ages.  Several magical beasts are listed and described, complete with a Ministry of Magic rating as to how dangerous each specific beast is.  The cool thing about the copy of Fantastic Beasts in this box set is that it is supposed to be the one owned by Harry Potter himself, and has been written in by Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  There are also a few doodles of some of the beasts, but I wish there had been more, because it was hard for me to picture some of these strange animals.


Quidditch Through the Ages, by Kennilworthy Whisp, is a library book that Hermione has checked out in Sorcerer's Stone, which Harry then borrows from her.  So the book in the box set is made to look like a library book, complete with a list of students who have checked the book out and the date that it was due back.  The book tells the history of the sport of Quidditch, from its early rough stages in Queerditch Marsh in the eleventh century, right up to the late twentieth century.  It lists the rules, national teams, and famous moves.  This book was a lot easier for me to read than Fantastic Beasts, and I'm not even particularly a big fan of Quidditch.  I mean, if I was at Hogwarts, I'd go to the matches, but I'm with Hermione - it's just a game.  But I liked the book and it was really neat to see J.K. Rowling's extensive imagination at work in the way that the game was formed.


Overall, I gave this box set 4/5 stars on Goodreads.  I am a huge Harry Potter nerd and I think that others like me would love to have this in their collection.  And I'm glad I finally got around to finishing these books!

Book 10/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Yesterday I was looking at my book shelves and my husband came up to me and asked me what I was doing.  I told him that I was trying to figure out which book I should read next for my "Off the Shelf" Challenge, since I only have 4 months left to finish and I still needed to read 6 more books.  I told him that I wanted it to be kind of small, because I have a lot of other books that I want to read soon.  He randomly grabbed a book from the shelf and held it out.  It was small (120 pages), and it happened to be a book that qualifies for the challenge.

It was Night, by Elie Wiesel.  I grimaced and said, "But that's just depressing."  Handing it to me, my husband said, "Oh, just get it over with."  So I did.  I started it last night and finished it today, which isn't something that happens very often with me.  I have gotten faster with my reading in the past few years, but it still takes me a few days to read even the smallest of books, or even the quickest-paced, most engulfing reads (like Glow). 


For those of you who don't know, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he, along with his family, was forced into concentration camps during the Holocaust.  Night is his first-hand account of all that he went through during that time.  Not the happiest of stories.  I knew that it was a true story going in, thus the "But that's just depressing" comment above.  But since I read so much fiction, I realized once I was a few pages into this book that I was treating it like it was fiction.  My subconscious was taking in these characters, scenes, and events and making me think that they were part of a fictional tale.  I knew it was a true story, but I flew through it, almost pretending that it wasn't true.  


I'm not sure if I'm articulating this well.  Let me just say that, while this book is not explicitly graphic, there are a lot of horrendous (and I mean horrendous) events mentioned throughout.  Some of which dealt with small children.  Actually, the first horrible event that is told in this story has to do with atrocious things happening to small children.  And my brain just kind of clicked, tricking myself into temporarily pretending that this was all a tale of fiction.  Occasionally something would happen and I would stop and think, "Whoa, that person was actually real.  And he actually did and said that."  But my mind would kind of shake away the thought and go back into novel-mode.


I'm sure my psychologist friends would say this was a kind of coping mechanism or something.  Something to keep me from thinking too hard about such a depressing subject.  I agree.  That's totally what happened.  I couldn't think too deeply about these things that he described, because I would unravel and then I wouldn't have been able to finish this wonderful book.


Now, here, I want to clarify something.  The fact that I couldn't think too hard about the events in this book in no way means that I think that this book was fiction.  I know it was what actually happened to the author.  I know that all of these horrible things (and countless others) actually happened to millions of people.  I think the people who deny the Holocaust or say that it was a hoax have got to be the most ignorant people in the entire world.  And obviously, it goes without saying that Hitler, and the Nazis, were some of the most evil, messed-up people in the entire history of the human race.


I also want to say that, although I am not Jewish and I do not have any direct link to people who were killed or persecuted during the Holocaust, the way I read this book was in no way trying to belittle what happened to them.  I will never know their pain, but I feel for them as strongly as anyone else.  I also do not wish to go against Mr. Wiesel's impetus for writing this book:  so that we don't forget, and so that it never happens again.  The fact that I couldn't think too deeply about the events in this book as I read it does not mean that I will forget what happened, or that I will ever tolerate anything similar.  The Holocaust goes against everything that I stand for as a person.  


And even though I couldn't bring myself to think about the events in the book too deeply, I always knew that it was a true story, and that it was a story that needed to be told, and one that I needed to read.  One that everyone needs to read.

Book 9/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Book Cover Photo courtesy of illiterarty.com

The ninth book I read for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge was Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk.  This book has been sitting on my shelf for a long, long time.  I saw Fight Club in theaters when it came out in 1999, and soon after, I purchased the book that it was based on.  I loved the movie, and enjoyed the book as well, and so a few years later, when I saw Lullaby on the shelf, I bought it as well.  But I didn't read very much back then, and when I actually tried to read it I just couldn't get into it.


Then a few years later I tried reading it again, but I still couldn't get into it.  I tried reading it just a couple years ago, but I was either pregnant at the time, or had just had my son, and so the fact that there are a lot of babies dying in the book made me put it down again.


So the other day, when I realized I only had 4 1/2 months to read 7 more books for this challenge, I remembered this book was sitting on the shelf.  I had just re-watched Fight Club for a post I wrote over at Reviewsin5.com (Top 5 David Fincher Movies), and I thought, "Yeah, I should finally read that."


So the beginning was hard, because, like I said before, several babies die in the first part of the book.  Now, it's not graphic but it's still hard to read when you're a parent, especially a parent of a young child.  Here's a little background about the book before I go any further:  Carl Streator is a journalist who has been assigned a story about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), but while investigating, he notices that most of the crime scenes include a book open to the same page.  On the page is an African culling song, a lullaby that was traditionally read to the terminally ill, in hopes that they would die a peaceful death.  So Streator goes hunting for all the books, along with a few other odd-ball characters, trying to destroy them all before the lullaby kills too many people.  The problem is, he's got the lullaby in his head, and is inadvertantly killing people, simply by thinking the words to himself.


So the plot line, I think, is pretty cool.  A lullaby that, said aloud (or even thought), can kill?  And luckily the dead babies only appear at the beginning and at the very end, so once I got in the meat of the book I really enjoyed it. However, a lot of creepy stuff happens here and there, and the end is pretty messed up.  I wish that some of the gross stuff had been left out, because I really don't think the story needed most of it.  Although, I guess it wouldn't be Chuck Palahniuk without it.


Another thing I noticed when reading the book, is that there is a very strong voice throughout.  Palahniuk's phrasing of sentences, his informal style, is such that, if I were to open one of his books without knowing the author, I would realize it was his work right from the beginning.  I mean, that could be a good or a bad thing.  He's got his own style, which sets him apart from others. But unfortunately, it could limit his writing.  If all of his books sound the same, if they have the same voice, then that voice becomes Palahniuk's voice, not the voice of his characters.  Which means that either all his characters end up sounding the same, or the voice sounds weird on certain characters.  Does this make any sense?  It makes sense to me, but it's hard for me to articulate. 


I'm really glad I finally got through this book.  I mean, it's been sitting on my shelf for at least 6 years.  But overall, I have to give this a 3/5, a medium ranking.  While some of the story is great, I really didn't like certain parts.  I would reccomend this book to others, but only to people who have read and loved other books by Chuck Palahniuk.

Pottermore, Glow, Writing, and More...

Wow, how long has it been since I've written a post?  The beginning of June?  Jeez.  Well, we've been pretty busy over at reviewsin5.com, so writing on my own blog which really has no major theme has fallen by the wayside...


So, what has been happening?  Well, if you've been under a rock you've missed the whole awesomeness that is Pottermore!  Basically it's an interactive website that allows Harry Potter fans (like me!) to explore the books and material in a new way.  Highlights:  you get to be sorted into a Hogwarts house and get a wand, both of which J.K. Rowling created the processes herself!  Now I'll finally get to officially see if I'm a Hufflepuff like I think I am...


So Pottermore opens to all in October, but recently there was this thing called The Magical Quill challenge, where fans could solve clues to gain early access to the site.  I was one of the lucky few to gain this early access (as were several of my friends)!  Now we just have to wait until we get our Welcome email that will let us know that we can go ahead and get onto the site.  Man, I try to be a very patient person, but it's proving to be quite hard waiting for that email!


I've also been doing A LOT of reading.  So far this year I've read 45 books!  Granted, 17 of those were Sweet Valley High books, which are only around 150 pages each.  But some of the other books have been pretty hefty!  My original goal was to read 35 books this year, and I reached that number in May!  Woohoo!  Unfortunately, my other reading goal was to complete the 2011 Off the Shelf Challenge by reading 15 books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while, waiting to be read.  So far I've only read 8 for that challenge.  But I still have 4 1/2 months to reach that goal!

Photo copyright St. Martin's Press

I'm super excited about one of the books I read recently.  It's called Glow, by Amy Kathleen Ryan.  I received an ARC through a giveaway on Goodreads, and the book will be released in late September.  Glow is a young adult novel set in the future, where two spaceships are on course to "New Earth," where they hope to preserve the human race.  The story revolves around two teenagers, Waverly and Kieran, who are poised to be the next leaders of their ship, the Empyrean.  But when the inhabitants of their sister ship, the New Horizon, invade the Empyrean and kidnap some of the children, the ships' course changes and an impending battle thrusts Waverly and Kieran into those leadership roles earlier than they expected.


Here's my review from Goodreads:  

WOW! I LOVED this book! There is so much action and suspense throughout the whole novel that it was really hard for me to put it down, so I only stopped reading when I absolutely had to!  

The characters are very complex; just when you think you have a character figured out, Amy Kathleen Ryan throws a wrench in your theory. I really found myself liking a lot of the characters, and even having sympathy for the antagonists.  

There are a lot of themes going on in this book, the obvious ones being one's duty to their community, and morality vs. faith or lack thereof. The religion aspect gets a bit heavy near the end of the book, but I think Ryan did a good job with showing the advantages and disadvantages of both organized religion and atheism/agnosticism.  

The only problem I really had with the book is that it's not even published yet, and the ending is left wide open for sequels, which means fans will most likely have a LONG time to wait for the second book in the series.  

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA books, especially those who also love Science Fiction!


Also, I just (finally!) started editing my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel.  I'm really excited about this book and I hope to have this 2nd draft ready for beta readers within the next few months.  But I really have no idea how long it will take me to get this draft done...


Other than that I've been taking care of my nearly two-year-old son and working hard on Reviews in 5.  The site has been live for about 4 1/2 months now, and so far it's going great!  Please visit the site and be sure to "like" us on Facebook!  


That's all for now.  Hopefully my next post won't be two months from now!

Book 8/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Photo courtesy of pandora.ca

In honor of Towel Day a week and a half ago, I decided that for my next book in the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, I would read the next book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.

I didn't like this one as much as I liked the first two in the series, and I guess it was about as good as the third.  I still love Douglas Adams and his humor, but I just think the plots aren't quite up to par with the first two stories.

I really, really enjoyed the part about the sandwiches in British pubs being horrible.  I mean, seriously, this is just great:  "There is a feeling which persists in England that making a sandwich interesting, attractive, or in any way pleasant to eat is something sinful that only foreigners do." Hilarious!  And then, couple paragraphs later:  

It is by eating sandwiches in pubs at Saturday lunchtime that the British seek to atone for whatever their national sins have been.  They're not altogether clear what those sins are, and don't want to know either.  Sins are not the sort of things one wants to know about.  But whatever sins there are are amply atoned for by the sandwiches they make themselves eat.

This man really is a comedic genius, as well as a writing genius!  I also really enjoyed the story that Arthur told Fenchurch about the time a man ate his biscuits.

Image from my shirt - courtesy of snorgtees.com

All in all, I still love these books and the stories and characters in them, but this one, along with Life, the Universe and Everything, just weren't as good as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  I do, however, have a shirt with this book's title on it - I bought it after seeing the 2005 movie version of Hitchhiker's Guide, and since I love that movie so much, I couldn't not buy the shirt when I saw it.  Unfortunately, I've gained some weight since then and my goal is to get back into that shirt!

Book 7/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

The seventh book I read for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge was The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.  


I don't really have much to say about this book, other than I enjoyed it, and I wanted to watch the movie version with Guy Pearce as soon as I finished it, but it isn't available to view instantly on Netflix, so I'll have to wait a while.


I really enjoy Science Fiction novels and movies (or are they called SF now?), and although I don't know the history of novels focusing on time travel, I would have to say that this must be one of the most influential, if not one of the first of its kind.  It's a simple story, and I was kind of left wanting more - wanting the narrator to join the Time Traveller on a trip to some other point in time, just so that I could read about it.  I think that's why I enjoy Doctor Who - The Doctor and his companions are always going to a different time, to a different place, with each one being more wondrous than the one before.


Overall, I enjoyed the book and, in reading it, realized just how much I want to read more about time travel.

Book 6/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Book cover courtesy of reader2.com

The next book I chose to read for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge was The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks.


Let me just start by saying that for me, liking a book like this is a bit weird.  Yes, I am a bit of a hippie and I believe in things like love and equality and such.  Yes, I am madly in love with my husband, and I believe him to be my soul mate.  But, other than that, books like this - cheesy romance novels, I guess you could say - I normally don't want to read.  Don't get me wrong - I love a good love story, and I think that most stories have to have some type of love included, whether it be romantic love, friendship love, love between parents and children, whatever.  But most of the time I cringe when I see something too sappy.


Oh, who am I kidding?  I loved this movie, and I really liked the book.  It wasn't the best writing in the world, and while the author tries to give you a bit of mystery, you know what's going to happen in the end, who she's going to end up with.  I've only read one other Nicholas Sparks book - The Last Song - which was a book club pick, and I really didn't like that book at all.  But I don't know what it is exactly with this story (The Notebook) that makes my heart feel like it's going to burst and makes me worry that I'll start crying and never stop.  I think, though, when I first watched the movie, it was simply the love story that did it to me, and the pain of watching your love slip away with Alzheimer's.  But this time around, as I read it, I think I also had strong emotions towards the details about them watching their children grow, which makes sense because now I am a mother myself.


Anyway, you might call me a hopeless romantic or whatever, but I'll always love this movie and I really liked the book as well.

Book 5/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

Book cover courtesy of illiterarty.com

For my 5th selection for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  This was another book that I should have read in high school, but I don't think I ever finished.  Looking back, I'm really not sure how I passed some of the tests I took in school.  I must have skimmed over it and found out the major details, or maybe used Cliffs Notes.


So, reading this book now, it took me a while to get into it.  But I think that was partly because of the writing style, and partly because the book just didn't get interesting until about two-thirds of the way in.  Therefore I ended up liking the book more than I thought I was going to, but I think I really only enjoyed the last third of the book.


I'm interested in seeing the film now, especially since a new adaptation is set to come out in 2012, and is starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, and possibly Ben Affleck.  Overall, though, I think I still have to give this book a medium rating, like a 3 out of 5, because, even though it's considered a major classic, it doesn't rank up there with my favorites.

Book 4/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

For the fourth book of the "Off the Shelf" Challenge, I chose to continue to read the books in the Hitchhiker's Guide series, by Douglas Adams.


Life, the Universe and Everything is the third book in the series, and unfortunately it didn't, to me, live up to the first two installments.  There were parts that made me laugh, parts that made me nod at Mr. Adams's genius, but there were way too many parts that made me look up from the book and shake my head and say, "What did I just read?  Why is this not making any sense?"  Of course, that might be what a lot of people think while reading any of the Hitchhiker's Guide books.  The fact is that Mr. Adams continually goes off on tangents that you presume are random, but in fact, they come back later on in the book, and if you simply glossed over those tangents earlier, you won't get the humor in their later appearances.  But for some reason this book seemed to drag on a bit more than the first two and didn't seem to have quite as interesting of a plot.


All that being said, I must also mention that the reason that I might not have enjoyed this book as much as the first two could perhaps be because of the oodles of books on my shelf that I am dying to read right now.  Those books will have to wait a bit longer, though, because I just got a copy of my friend's book and I'm itching to read it and become a real-life Beta Reader.  ;)


But overall, I love Douglas Adams and his humor, and I envy his creativity.  This book, while good, just wasn't as good as the first two.

Where's Hermione When You Need Her?

I feel a bit overwhelmed.  I think I might need a schedule, one akin to the studying schedules that Hermione makes for Harry and Ron in the Harry Potter books.


Here's what I've got going.  I've challenged myself to read 35 books this year (I read 30 last year), but this goal is totally doable.  It's how I do it that's the problem.  I've also challenged myself to the "Off The Shelf" Challenge, where I will read 15 books that have been on my bookshelf for a while but I haven't read yet.  I've already read 3 books for this challenge.  But here's where the problems start.  I have book club books to read as well (only one a month, so not too big of a problem), and I have other books that I bought a few weeks ago that I also want to read.  Then I relieved one of my friends of about 9 books that she was getting rid of - also books that I want to read, but since they just joined my overflowing book shelf, they won't count towards the "Off The Shelf" challenge.  Then, yesterday, I went to a closing sale at the Borders near me that is closing and came back with 6 more books, and most of these are of the "oh-man-I-must-read-them-now" caliber.  Yes, all of these books can count towards my year goal of 35 books.  But the question is, how do I read them and still read the books for my "Off The Shelf" challenge?  I mean, those books have been sitting there for a while, and yes, I want to read them, but these new books are so nice and shiny and are calling to me...


And that's just the problem with the books.  I also was hoping to participate in NaNoEdMo in March, where I challenge myself to complete 50 hours of edits on my recent NaNoWriMo novel.  I really want to edit that novel, and I feel like the deadline given in NaNoEdMo will help to make that a reality.  I will edit it, but I'm afraid if I don't participate in NaNoEdMo I'll just keep putting it off.  Then there's Script Frenzy in April, and I'm not sure I'm up for another 100-page script in 30 days, but I really enjoyed it last year.  Then one of my friends has deigned me worthy of being a beta reader for one of her novels.  This is one thing that I will definitely do, no matter what my schedule's like.  I'm so excited to do it, and nothing can stop me!


And then there's this other thing that I'm going to be completely vague about and make it frustrating for all of my readers.  ;)  I'll just say that it's a new project, a new blog project that I'm really excited about and it's just now at the starting gates.  The first post won't go up for a while, but it is somewhat time-consuming because a lot of work goes into each post.


And I have all of this to do while also taking care of my 1 1/2-year-old son.  He's a lot of work. But I do get to read and do other things while he naps and after his bed time.


So here's what I think.  My husband suggested that I make sure I read one "Off The Shelf" book every month, and that I can't read any other books (besides book club books) until I've read that specific book.  Right now I'm reading the March book club pick, and I should be done within a couple of days.  So I think after that I'll start my ritual of reading the "Off The Shelf" book first, and the others after.  Then, of course, when I receive my friend's novel, I'll be reading that ASAP.  And I'll be working at least a few hours a week on my new blog project.  But I feel like I may have to forgo NaNoEdMo and Script Frenzy this year.  But if I don't do NaNoEdMo, I feel like I still need to pencil in some editing time.


So, readers, what do you think?  Any tips?

Book 3/15, "Off the Shelf" Challenge

I went through a phase, as I've said before, where I didn't do a lot of reading.  This meant that many of the books that most people read in high school went untouched or unfinished on my shelf.  One such book was the third book I chose to read for the "Off the Shelf" Challenge:  To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.  


When I started this reading challenge, I knew there were several books that I simply could not ignore on my shelf any longer.  This was one of them.  I was supposed to read it in high school or junior high, but I never finished it.  So when I sat down to read it recently I had a few ideas about it in my head.  I knew the main plot of the story.  I remembered a few of the characters' names.  And I knew that it was one of those books that you're "supposed" to love.  And if not love, at least like a lot.  It's a classic.


But I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it.  And for the first 15 or so pages, I was sure that I had stopped reading it as a teenager for a reason.  But I stuck with it, and lo and behold, I ended up really liking it.  I am a strong supporter for equal rights for all humans, no matter their race, religion, sexual orientation, or nationality.  So this book was right up my alley.

But regardless of the moral of the story, there were other things that simply appealed to me.  I loved the court-room scenes.  One of my favorite movies is 12 Angry Men, with Henry Fonda.  If you love mysteries, whodunits, court-room dramas, etc., check out this movie.  It, too, is a classic.  So when Atticus Finch was in the court, questioning witnesses, it made me excited to figure out what actually happened between Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell.


Then the ending happened.  Or snuck up on me with a vengeance, is more like it.  Now, I know most people out there have read this book but for those who haven't, I won't talk about it.  I don't want to spoil it.  But let me just say, I didn't see that coming.  And then, in the final pages of the novel, I have to say that there was closure.  And with all the series that I've been reading lately, it's refreshing to read a stand-alone book with nice closure.