TGIF (22)…Reccomendations or RachelKiwi Listen Up!

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is…

Recommend It: Which book from the last 10 you’ve read would you recommend to a friend?

I’m sorry, first I must pull up my last 10 reads on GoodReads…I have a bit of book amnesia when put on the spot like this. Seriously, when people ask me what’s the last good book I read [which as a librarian happens on a daily basis] my mind goes completely blank.

Completely

Like I’ve only read 3 books this year instead of 3 books a week. It’s sad. Maybe I need to take some ginko for my memory…Anyone know if that really works?

Anyway, The following are the last 10 books I’ve read according to GoodReads:

1. Some Girls Bite
2. This Beautiful Life
3. Belly Laughs
4. Tempest
5. Redeeming Love
6. Loving the Highlander
7. Charming the Highlander
8. A Christmas Carol
9. Highlander for the Holidays
10. Holiday Kisses

So now that we’re all aware of what I’ve been reading lately know that I’m tailoring my review to fit my bookish BFF RachelKiwi. We recommend books to each other on almost a daily basis…so I’m formatting this review based on why or why I wouldn’t recommend one of my last 10 books to her…

1. Some Girls Bite – I may recommend this book to RachelKiwi. It was a very tame paranormal romance…Except for the fact that I really didn’t enjoy the read as much as I have others in this genre…

2. This Beautiful Life – Recommend: This book lingers with you. It was a NY Times top 100 pick and I loved how it shifted from being about child pornography/sexting-type issues to a portrait of a family to a discussion of the sexes. Plus, it was very well written.

3. Belly Laughs – Recommend: Simply hilarious. Baby or not, Jenny McCarthy is one funny lady.
4. Tempest – I didn’t love this one. I found it poorly written and not worth the time to read.
5. Redeeming Love – RachelKiwi gave this one to me. And while I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t done the story yet…It’s a bit redundant to recommend to Mrs. Kiwi.
6. Loving the Highlander – Not Mrs. Kiwi’s cup of tea
7. Charming the Highlander – Same series and reason as above
8. A Christmas Carol – While I’m 95% sure RachelKiwi has already read this at some point. It’s just not very seasonal to do at the moment.
9. Highlander for the Holidays – She wouldn’t be into the paranormal-ness of the story [note: the non-recommendation for the first two in the series above], and again…it’s not Christmas.
10. Holiday Kisses – I’d tell Mrs. Kiwi to do this one next Christmas. The collection was enjoyable when my mind was focused on the hustle and bustle of the season.

What are you recommending lately?

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TGIF (14)…Putting the ‘Spooky’ in Spooktacular

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is…

Spooktacular Reads: Which books do you consider festive Halloween reads? Which stories have chilled you to the bone?

Well, as I’ve admitted over the course of my R.I.P. Reading Challenge that I’m a pretty big scaredy-cat when it comes to scary stories. But I’m learning to enjoy a fright or two and the three books I’ve already done for the challenge are great Halloween reads:

Ashes by Ilsa Bick

All about a girl who survives an apocalyptic electromagnetic charge that kills or turns people into zombies…The tension in this kept me on the edge of my seat, murmuring things like “Run, Run, Run!” or “Shh! be quiet” or “Eek, grab the gun!!!” Ok, so maybe I was slightly more forceful than a murmurer but I’m pretty sure I was only actually shouting in my head! lol.

The Shining by Stephen King

Boy with way more than a 6th sense gets snowed into a Hotel with only his mother and slowly-losing-his-mind father. Too bad the boy’s extrasensory ability only fuels the evil Hotels fire…needless to say, not everyone makes it out alive…Redrum anyone?

The Poisoned House by Michael Ford

I liked this one best of all. Gothic read, creepy ghost, an evil Housekeeper, and whispers of murder. The perfect Halloween read set in Victorian England. So spooked by the book I had to stop reading at one point! Loved it.

But there is no need to stick to these new reads…In the past some of my faves have been:

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Cruciable by Arthur Miller

The Physic Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Those are my Spooktacular picks. I can’t wait to see what everyone else chose…I still need my 4th R.I.P. read! Wish me happy hunting. And leave suggestions in my comments! I’ll love you forever 😉

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TGIF (11)…Censorship or What makes TheLibrarian angry…

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is…

Banned Books: How do you feel about the censorship of the freedom to read? Do you think the education system needs to be more strict on what children are exposed to in books?

This week’s question is in recognition of Banned Books Week, “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.” – taken from the ALA website.

I think it’s hardest dealing with this issue as a librarian in a school. I’ve dealt with censorship on a personal level…not just the idea of it in theory. People don’t realize how hard librarians fight to keep books and information available to today’s students. And also, how hard we fight to get students to even look at the information we’re fighting to hard to keep in our libraries for them!

As a side note just recently this year my school bought a class set of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

After the teacher who had the book slated for her class looked into the book further they realized that it was not a book the teacher wished to teach in their class.

This is not censorship…It’s personal preference as to what a teacher wishes to teach in a classroom. The Perks of Being a Wallflower didn’t teach the teacher’s literary elements any better than the book the teacher eventually went with.

I had a school administrator take the book out of the hidden box of these books in my library. True, I was eventually planning on putting a few copies on my shelf…then returning the other 38 books. But without asking this administrator took the book, read it, and in a meeting with myself and my principal declared that he wouldn’t put this book within 10 feet of our students.

This is censorship.

In a moment of fate, not 24 hours after this meeting I had a student approach me. This student said she had just finished the most amazing book, had I ever read it? She was dying to read more books like it…

What book you ask?

Why, it was The Perks of Being a Wallflower…This student connected with this book more than any other she’d ever read. It made her ravenous for more books like it.

I could go into the theories of why young adults like certain types of literature. The developmental path of their brains, their logic, and their emotions. I’ve taken graduate level classes on this type of stuff you know…Librarians don’t just judge their books by the covers 😉

In the end, backed by science or not, it is my student’s reaction to the book that proves we can’t censor our books or our information. To do so is not only dangerous…my heart hurts with the idea that one person feels as though they can dictate what another person should or should not enjoy, should or should not read. It makes my blood pressure rise like none other. It makes this Librarian angry…

My own personal mantra is the following:

“Some people read for windows, some people read for doors”

Given the twists and turns all of our lives take, I’m not about to judge your life by banning a book that either reflects your own, or gives you escape from it.

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TGIF (9)…When a book Fails…

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is..

Book Disappointments: Have you ever come across a book you were so stoked to read, but it failed miserably in your eyes?

The Ending of the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning

I Loved this series. Seriously, LOVED. It follows this one girl, MacKayla a.k.a. Mac through this transformation from spoiled pretty-girl to kick-a$$ unseelie fighter. Oh, and then there was that AMAZING sexual tension between Mac and Barrons, the hotter than hot, bookstore owning, slightly supernatural, maybe villain, guy. A hook-up that is books and books in the making.

The first four books were so strong! And then the last one, it just didn’t deliver. A big poo poo on the entire series. I was so disappointed in the end I don’t even recommend it to others. Which is so horrible because I was ready to run off to Vegas and marry the first four books.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

(sort of)

Before anyone freaks out…this is a “sort-of” answer (note the ‘sort-of’ in my title). Every review I read loved this book. Like LOVED, Where-has-this-been-all-my-life LOVED. I Liked the book, I enjoyed the book, I’m going to finish the series eventually and will recommend the book to my students…but I don’t feel the need to bring the L-word into my relationship with this book.

Sometimes these are the worst fails. The “Likes” when you were expecting to “LOVE!!!”. Just a little reminder to TheLibrarian, that not all books are for all people…

The Summer I Turned Pretty Review

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Publisher’s weekly said this was: ”darkly sexy prose and suspenseful storytelling”

On Amazon and Barnes and Noble hundreds of readers give the paranormal novel a combined star rating of 4.5 stars along with reader reviews titled things like “Highly Recommended”, “Yummy”, and “My Absolute Fav”.

I HATED this book. HATED. Look at that…two complete capitalization hates in a row, that means I really mean it. Probably the only review I’ve ever written in which I seriously hate-on a book. Ugh, it was bad. I couldn’t even BookTalk it! And we all know how I can craft a BookTalk outta just about anything…

Blood and Chocolate Review

Anyone else out there disappointed? It’s ok…feel free to whine along with me, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TGIF (8)…Getting Visual

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is..

Books to Television: Which books would you love

to see made in to a TV series? or movie?

I’d love to see Outlander made into some type of mini series. The books are waaaay to long and involved to be covered in a movie…but the whole thing is too epic for a single movie. I know that there is talk of an Outlander movie in the works…but I’m still going to wish for the mini series, lol. Though you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be first in line for any film adaptation…well maybe second, my reading bff RachelKiwi will probably beat me to the box office 😉 She’s more obsessed than me! Ahhh, Jamie Fraser…lol

I love when a fantasy/science fiction book is made into a movie. Because as brilliant as my imagination is, it’s awful nice to have a real live visual to go along with my book. Think Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Hopefully the Hunger Games…I think Dashner’s Maze Runner would make a great movie as well. The book has enough description for my mind but I think more than enough action and adventure to make a great movie.

Those are my two picks…what are yours?

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TGIF (5)…To Review or Not To Review…

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is…

The Reviews We Don’t Write: Have you ever read a book and not wanted to review it? Are some books too personal that we want to keep our thoughts our own?

I don’t know that I’ve ever come across a book I didn’t want to review because it was too personal. I’ve done a few that didn’t inspire much thought. Those books that don’t incite praise or anger/frustration. Those shoulder-shrug-type books. Those are more likely to be left unreviewed. But mostly I review everything I read.

Where I do struggle more is in my booktalking of books. Sometimes, I desire to just write a review and no booktalk. Most times it’s because I feel too lazy to put a book into a teaser-type summary that will entice library patrons into checking it out, lol. But I always think to myself, even if I wouldn’t share this book with my patrons (mostly because they cap out at 18 and it’s not really appropriate to be sharing J.R. Ward with students) I think about that librarian in a public library somewhere who might be looking to booktalk some stuff for a Valentines Day crowd or some such event. And she really does need a booktalk for that book.I started this blog as a way to share the booktalks I was spending so much time prepping. So I really try to give each one my attention…even if I know chances are good I’ll never use it myself.

Librarians are nothing if not helpful 😉

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TGIF (4)…Author Party!

This Friday’s Question:

Author Block Party:

If you could gather a handful of authors to hang out with,

who would you choose?

I feel the need to ask: Do they have to be alive?…

For my following answers I decided…No, they don’t

It was an executive decision 😉

I mean heck, in reality, I’m over the moon if any author is willing to talk to me, or answer a question or two about their book…So considering this fantasy question I’m letting go of all rules, including the time/space continuum. All authors are welcome at my dinner party…

Without further ado, my answers:

Libba Bray – Like I’ve said before, I love her books! They are quirky, funny, girl-power filled fun-ness. I’m sure a conversation with her has to be amazing. She mentioned on Twitter once throwing in a musical number when she hit a bit of a road block. Really isn’t that what all books need…musical numbers…Bray gets an invite for sure!

Virginia Woolf – Ok, so she’d have to come back from the dead and all. But back in the day she was a part of the hip literary/art crowd and she was actually pretty cheeky and girl-power oriented herself. So I’m thinking she’d be a great guest. And I’ve always had a few questions about Orlando that only an author could explain…

Nora Roberts – She’s published multiple books a year for years…and they’re always bestsellers and if not really good literature, they’re really good fun. This is practically unheard of in the publishing world. How she manages to keep it all up, and how the story lines are still entertaining is baffling.

Maggie Stiefvater – (just a side note…managed to spell that last name without looking it up, cookie please 😉 ) She has to attend because I need to know how she really thinks life goes on for Sam and Grace. You know in her author mind it couldn’t have ended so vague. She must know what really happens in the future! Picture me cornering her near the bar cart…

Jennifer Donnelly – I just finished her Tea Rose Trilogy and a woman who can build those kinds of worlds. Bring in that much history accurately and still produce a sweeping, pick-me-up-off-my-feet, kind of epic romance must make great conversation. I picture her correctly fact-checking us all…in the nicest possible way…

Stieg Larsson – I don’t know how much small talk I want to make with Mr. Larsson. I mean, his books are pretty heavy and graphic…soooo good, but pretty raw. However, I’m resurrecting him from the dead to finish the books in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I’ll take just an outline! A short story! Something! I do realize this is a selfish reason to invite him to my party, especially since I’ve chosen mostly women, but again I plead fantasy.

So there it is. Kind of Random…and I’m not sure everyone would really get along. But it’s my party so the guest list stands. What Author(s) would you like to break bread with?

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TGIF (3)…Taking it Personal

This Friday’s Question:

Taking it Personal: Which books have effected you on a personal level and lingered in your mind long after you closed the pages?

I would just like to say…I hate questions like this. Anyone with me? People who are readers get asked questions in this vein all the time. “What’s your favorite book?”, “What’s the best book you’ve ever read?”, and the question above: “Which books have affected you on a personal level?”. Blah. HaHa.

My problem: I have such a hard time picking! I have books that I think about because I loved the characters so much, like a Twilight, or the Tea Rose Series. After the Hunger Games I couldn’t read anything for two whole days because I had no idea it was a trilogy. The disbelief that hit me when I realized that this was not the ending for these characters stumped me for days…I NEEDED that next book…I NEEDED it NOW…NOT in a year!

But none of those books effected any change in me. No soul shift. No altered world view. As good as these all of these books were and as attached as I became I was basically done when they were done. Sometimes I do a reread (HINT: Join us for the rest of the Twilight Series starting on Monday!). But these rereads are more about escaping to a fantasy than anything else.

Thus I pick a toughie. I pick a book a lot of people have hated. This book has given me more pride as a reader than any other…

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

I know! Most English majors out there are cringing. But I can explain. I’ve read this book, easily, 5 times. The first time it was like Greek to me. Sure, in that intro to English class I filled out the questions, took the notes, spark-noted a bit. I thought I understood…

I didn’t understand. The change in the painting. The shifting of the tree. The purple triangle. Gibberish I tell you! Until my senior year. Ms. Wolf had captured my academic imagination. I decided to do a thesis on her. Yep, as if To The Lighthouse wasn’t enough for most of us, I signed on to read all of her books…and the journals…and all those remnants of half written work. I began To The Lighthouse yet again, except this time…it made sense. It was beautiful, lyrical, touching. And I knew what that darn purple triangle meant! The most amazing Eureka! moment I’ve ever had.

So there’s my answer. It wasn’t an easy book, or an easy path. In fact I’d recommend the title to only a select few readers. It’s a confusing book, convoluted in its simplicity. It’s never been an enjoyable read. Always seeming to me to be more of a literary puzzle than a rainy day read. But to conquer it. To see Lily find herself…and understand her art. I still feel an inordinate amount of pride in this accomplishment. So much so that I named my dog after her.

Yep, little Lily has never been a flower…instead a character from a literary classic. One that will always hold a special place on my bookshelves.

So I ask you…Which book(s) have affected you the most?

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TGIF (2)…Character Envy

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at Greads. It’s about answering/asking our readers a random book related question. The question posted by Ginger today is…

This Friday’s Question:

Character Envy: If you could be one character from a book, who would you choose & why?

Geeze, well, no character has a straight path or perfect life. Every character I can think of has had a very crooked path to happily ever after! I suppose this is why I’ve never really wished to be a specific character from a book…But to choose this answer would be a cop-out so let me think a moment…

hmm…

I think I’d like to be: Bella from Twilight

Ok, no one gag out there, lol. It’s every teenage girl’s choice too…except I’m not a teen which in some circles means I should know better. I suppose I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have an insta-love connection.

My husband and I met at ages 1 and 3…we played together for a day during a high school home-ec class project. But, we’ve dated since age 16. I suppose if insta-love for high schoolers exists I experienced it. But still, I never thought at 16 that I’d end up with my boyfriend as my husband at age 25. Never would have bet on that! Not that I didn’t love him, I’ve loved him for all these years. But I guessed that the odds were against us. I assumed that college and jobs would move us apart. While blessedly untrue…my meeting the love of my life was not instant…not even after a few years of high school dating and a prom.

So that brings me back to Bella. To know, so instantly that you would give your life…risk your eternal soul to become another being for someone, is an amazing thing. Something I would be hard pressed to find outside of fiction. How many of us would give up our conventional life for another?…to become paranormal? I think if I had to experience something, it may be that.

I’ve know a love that lasts and grows over years. It would be a guilty pleasure to see such confidence after mere days…

So there, I choose Bella…feel free to comment upon my decision 😉 I can take the critique.

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