October End of the Month Wrap-Up Post

October was very busy, but I intend for November to be crazy busy with writing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  So.... I will most likely not be doing any weekly posts, and very few posts that will require me to go return comments.  Instead I'm hoping to just go comment on blogs when I have time instead of feeling like I have to go comment on all the WOW or Sunday Posts that come up.  Also, I'm doing my October wrap up a day or two earlier than normal, because I want to be done with it before November starts as well!  This will probably be another quick post like last time, and I might also do some normal Sunday post topics in this as well.  We'll see.

Another month where I didn't get a discussion post done.  Not sure I'll meet my goal for the year, as I don't know how I'll get a discussion post done in November either.  Maybe December will get a few instead.

I got a few in this month.  If you're wondering what this challenge is about, you can go check it out HERE.

1. Hudson Valley series by Alice Clayton
2. Wendy Darling series by Colleen Oakes
3. There's Wild, Then There's You by M. Leighton
4. Six of Hearts by LH Cosway

Only one that I think counts this month.

• Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer 

Two books this month:

• The Row by JR Johansson
• Glitter by Aprilynne Pike

Got three of these this month.

• Deep (Stage Dive #4) by Kylie Scott
• Illusion (The Heirs of Watson Island #3) by Martina Boone
• One King's Way (On Dublin Street #6.5) by Samantha Young

I'm going to skip my Bookish Resolutions wrap-up for the month, which means I'm not meeting some of them kind of.

Some Statistics from Last Month:

• #of books read:  20 as of today, maybe one or two more by actual end of month
• # of full reviews posted on blog:  14
• # of mini-reviews posted on blog:  6

So that's my month at a glance.  Not going to list out a possible TBR either.  Just know that I'll hopefully be writing my 1,667 words every day in November in hopes of getting 50,000 done by the end of the month!

Discussion Post: I'm Yes Then I'm No, I'm In Then I'm Out - Or the Beloved Books That I Just Couldn't Seem to Love

As always I didn't get around to my discussion post till the end of the month.  Partly because of how busy it has been with school getting started back up. And partly because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to discuss.  Even now, my title isn't as good as I want it to be, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment, so hopefully it somewhat makes sense.  My discussion today is going to be about the books that either everyone seems to love and I tried, but just can't get into or don't quite get the fuss.   Of course I am going to throw in some GIFs because it is just so much fun to find them!

A reminder that the 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  If you want to check out any of my earlier posts you can go to these links:

• Fiction is Fiction - Or Why I Believe Teens are Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For,   

• It's In the Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings on My Blog,   

• This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or Is It Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog,   

• Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews.

• To DNF or Not to DNF, That is the Question - Or How Do You Decide if You Should Give Up on a Book?

So, my title refers to the Katy Perry song, Hot n Cold, but of course my favorite use of the song is in the Twilight parody by the Hillywood Show, which was also my first introduction to the YouTube sensation.  But what I'm going for with this post is all the books that everyone else is so "hot" for, and they just left me "cold" or at least "lukewarm". 

 

The first one is a series, and I want to duck here, because I'm afraid a lot of you are going to be throwing things at me through the internets.  I am on the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I am just not feeling it.  

The first book, Cinder, was more interesting to me than this 2nd one, Scarlet, has been so far.  Even then, when I finished Cinder, I was still left a little bit unsure of what all the fuss was about.  It was okay, but nothing that I was now obsessed over.  But, I was able to get a copy of Scarlet for $4 at a Scholastic Warehouse book sale, and then I won the next three books in the series through a couple different giveaways.  I had heard from many people that book 2 was better than book 1, so I assumed by winning all those books that was a sign I was going to go on and be swept away once I started Scarlet.  Umm, no, it's not happening.  I started the book on August 6th, and since then I've read 4 other physical books, and that's not counting the ebooks I've read.  I usually keep a physical book up on my nightstand so that I will read that right before bed instead of staring at a screen, because I feel like it is probably better for my sleep.  But Scarlet has just not kept me reading.  I can't decide whether to push on through, or give up and then maybe just sell/trade all my copies of the books in the series as a big set.  

 

Next is the Heroes of Olympus series and The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.  Now see, I loved the Percy Jackson series. 

But I had so much trouble keeping the characters straight in The Red Pyramid as each chapter went back and forth between them.  Which sucked, because I love Egyptian mythology and was so excited for that series.  

And then, when I struggled through The Lost Hero, all I could think was how many more words were used than were needed.  I looked at the size of the book, and thought about how if they'd left all those extra things out, it would have been probably the same length as the books in the Percy Jackson series, and still just as good as those.  Because of that I have not made myself read on, dreading the amount of time and extra stuff to skip over as I try to get to the main story.  

 

The last books I'm going to talk about that didn't blow me away are the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. 

 I actually love the Mortal Instruments series.  And I love Magnus Bane!  But I tried picking up and reading the first one in the series, Clockwork Angel, and just couldn't get into it.  I think it was actually one of my very first ever Books for Trade deals too!  So I have the copy sitting at home.  I don't know that I want to give up though.  I feel like maybe now sometime I might go back and try it again.  Just don't know when.   

So, are any of these books one that you loved?  Do you have any books like this that you don't like but everyone else does?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please chime in below!

Discussion Post: This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or is it Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog?

Today I'm doing my 3rd discussion post as part of the 2016 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. My first one was all about if teens are really as dumb as we think, and will expect what happens in books to be real life.  My second one was about giving ratings in your reviews.  You can go read my thoughts and then share what you think on those two HERE and HERE. Today I want to talk about the different age levels of books and how to review them on blogs.

So, recently I've started reading books that I would definitely not recommend to my high school students because of their sexual content.  It's not that in any way I want to censor what they read, I just know what is appropriate for me to suggest, and what isn't any of my business.  The reason I am thinking about this is because up until these past few months, the majority of what I read and blogged about was YA.  Once in awhile I'd throw in a nonfiction, memoir, or a Stephen King type of book.  None of which I would have an issue with a student of mine reading about.  But as I started this paragraph out saying, I seem to have gotten a bit of a trend with the types of books that I'm reading, and it all kind of started with the After series by Anna Todd.

I'm a 43 year old woman, so there's nothing wrong with what I read.  And I don't intend to be very explicit with my reviews.  I plan to talk about the story just like I would with any other book.  But since I usually only review books that I liked and finished, I will be saying good things about them.  So I guess my question to anyone who decides to join into my discussion post here is, should I be worried about who reads my posts?  I've started doing an "NA" in front of the new adult books I read, and then "YA" in front of the teen/young adult books.  Although some of my romances I'm reading aren't necessarily NA, but I feel silly putting the word "Adult" by itself in front of a review title.  I mean, I would have to do that with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, etc.

 

So tell me, what do you think about all this?  Do you think for me to review both types on the same blog is a horrible idea?  Do you think the way I'm differentiating in the titles is a good thing?  Or do you think I need to be worried about any of this if I don't intend to actually put the explicit stuff within my review?

I'm feeling a bit conflicted on this, because as a high school librarian, it is very possible that I might have students who want to follow my blog.  And then I don't know if it is bad for me to post things that I wouldn't tell them outright they should read.  Of course it could just be my silly brain that won't stop dwelling on the thought.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if you'd like to join into the discussion.  And this last gif is because I can't resist a Supernatural one any time I do a post like this.

It's in the Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings on My Blog

 

Here we go, my 2nd discussion post as part of the 2016 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.   My first one was all about if teens are really as dumb as we think, and will expect what happens in books to be real life.  You can go read my thoughts and then share what you think on that one HERE.   Today I want to talk about giving ratings to the books I read.  

I admit that I often go look at the stars or ratings that other blogs give sometimes before I read the actual review.  And whenever I finish a book I always give it a star rating on Goodreads. And if I leave a review on Barnes and Noble or Amazon, I give star reviews there too.  But here on my blog, ever since I quit just copying my reviews from Goodreads, I've not bothered to put the rating in the post.  

I'm not sure exactly why. But here is what I came up with when I tried to think about it a little more.  I feel like rating systems are often hard to use.  A lot of time I LOVE a book, but I know maybe it isn't the most well written, or maybe the story itself is really silly and superficial.  And maybe then I feel weird leaving it a 5 star review, when a book that was really well written and on a very deep subject, I didn't enjoy even though I feel like I should have because of what book it is, I would only leave a 3 star review.  Examples.  I love Twilight.  

I know that supposedly it is written horribly.  But to me, the writing grabbed me, and I couldn't put it, or any of the others in the series down.  To me, that is a good story, and it is well written.  A book I could not stand and had to force myself to get through, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night,

I know that really I should have thought it was a great book. Right?  I mean the character is autistic, and of course it didn't read like something I am used to, and it shouldn't read easy because it was written the way they would think and they think differently.  Another book that I couldn't even finish, yet so many people talk about what a great, profound book it is, is Dante's Inferno.  I was bored to tears.  And didn't finish it.  

Another issue.  I have a friend who is self publishing. And while I do like her stories, and enjoy reading them.  I often feel maybe it isn't as fair to compare it to traditionally published books that have editors that are paid to make sure it is done well.  Or if there is a book that I can see why other people really liked it, but I just didn't really care for it, I hate to mark it down, because then it is my opinion, not necessarily whether it is a good book or not.

On Goodreads, you can't do half-stars, and there are some books that I don't want to give them a 2, or a 3, but honestly they don't really rate as a 3 or 4.  So that is another thing I think of.  And then sometimes the sites tell you what each star stands for.  On Amazon the ratings go:  1 star - I hate it, 2 stars - I don't like it, 3 stars - It's okay, 4 stars - I like it, 5 stars - I love it.  But sometimes I give books a 4 that I loved, because they had issues that kept me from giving them a 5.  On Goodreads they are different:  1 star - did not like it, 2 stars - It was okay, 3 stars - liked it, 4 stars - really liked it, 5 stars - it was amazing.  On Barnes and Noble:  1 star - poor, 2 stars - below average, 3 stars - good, 4 stars - very good, 5 stars - excellent.  

Okay, so those are my reasons for why I am not big at rating on my blog.  I know a lot of other blogs have their own rating systems, and they show what each star means on the side bar of their blog.  I do like that method for sure.  But for me, I think I just like to talk about the book on my blog and tell what I do and don't like about it.

What do you think of my reasons?  What do you think of ratings?  Please, leave me some discussion below. 

Fiction is Fiction - Or Why I Believe Teens Are Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For

 

So, this is my very first discussion post on my blog, joining into the 2016 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  I'm going to try to explain myself clearly, as well as make it fun with pictures and/or gifs.  Today I'm going to talk about what you might call a pet peeve of mine.  Over and over I hear books criticized, or even condemned, for the topics covered, or the way the characters are portrayed.  For instance, I'll start with talk about one of my favorite book series, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

Over and over I hear about how horrible it is that Bella depends on a boy to take care of her.  That's one issue people have. The other is that Edward is a stalker and horrible boyfriend.  First off, let me point you back to the title of this post:  Fiction is Fiction.  It's not real people!  Most of the time when I read, it is to lose myself in something that is not my reality.  Yes, Edward does save Bella from a lot of danger, because he loves her, and also because he is a vampire, so his supernatural power saves her from other supernatural creatures.  And, my biggest point, sorry, *SPOILER*, for anyone who hasn't actually read the whole series, in the end, Bella ends up saving everyone!  So yeah, that isn't an issue for me.  Maybe we could talk about him being possessive and a bad boyfriend/stalker next.  Again, I believe part of that is back to him being supernatural and obviously not sure if he should be a part of her life at first. But besides that, while yes, I do ship myself with Edward, it's not because I would expect a real guy to do those weird things, or be okay with a real guy doing those types of things.  I know it is fiction.  In real life there is so much that I would not put up with.  If yu want to call this a damsel in distress story, I guess you could for most of it, but then also so are most fairy tales.  And yes, I know many people, feminists, etc, are against them as well. 

Now, there was a book that I read a year or so ago, that made me feel like I shouldn't have enjoyed it and devoured it as quickly as I did, Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.

This is a story of a definitely emotionally abusive relationship, there is no way you can say anything different about it.  And I felt bad reading and being sucked into the story because I know people who have been in those types of relationships, and it is not a good thing.   When I talked to one of my sisters about it, the sister who reads most of the same books I do and knows the person this made me think of, she is the one who brought me back to where I'm going with this post.  It is fiction.  While I might have enjoyed the steamier parts of the story, for the most part I was kept reading because I wanted to know what happened to the characters, and how they would handle it all.  

More and more I hear people saying that girls in books are bad examples for teens.  As if teens aren't smart enough to know what is fiction, or what is bad.  Yes, I know that there are people who do take what happens in books, or whatever they read, as truth.  But I don't believe it is something that we have to worry about all teens doing.  I was a teenager at one time.  Many years ago now, but I did not assume life should be like what I read in the book.  My biggest example is always the Flowers in the Attic series by V.C. Andrews.  

I read that series, over and over, back in those days I didn't have piles of books to read, so my favorite books would be re-read until I did buy a new one every once in awhile.  Just because I read that series doesn't mean I then wanted to fall in love with my brother.  Another V.C. Andrews book I read a lot, My Sweet Audrina, didn't romanticize rape for me.  The funny thing to me was that my parents took away all of my Teen Silhouette Romance series books, but left these V.C. Andrews books.  They didn't want me to get all the silly romantic ideas, yet these books with incest, and later Stephen King's horror stories, were okay for me to read.  Why is it that people think someone can read the horror or science fiction stories and understand they're not real, yet when it comes to romantic stories, readers are too stupid to not know those are fiction?  

Finally, I want to bring up the series that I am so obsessed with now that I had to get a tattoo to show my love for it, the After series, by Anna Todd.

I know that the relationship in this book is a horrible, terrible, emotionally abusive one.  And the things that happen to Tessa, that the guy Hardin even is a part of at the beginning, yes, not something I should even think is a good thing.  But I couldn't help it.  I fell in love with the characters, both of them flawed, not just Hardin.  And over and over they fought through this, and there were so many times as I read that I knew I would have been done, things that Tessa let go that there is no way I would have. But that is why it is fiction.  You can read about a relationship like this, and you can have the characters work and maybe improve themselves like we wish would happen in real life, and it's a nice story.  One you can fall in love with, but not have to try out for yourself.  There is talk of how this book glorifies rape in the reviews I've seen online, and it is not true. There is no rape in the books.  There are bad things that happen, but never are they romanticized or glorified.  Yes I'm an adult now, but even if I was a teen reading these, which I don't really feel they are teen books, I wouldn't have felt this is how a relationship should be.

Now give me your thoughts.  Surely I'm not the only person smart enough to know fiction is fiction, right?  I have dealt with teenagers on a daily basis for almost 20 years now, working in education as a teacher for 17 years, and a librarian now for 3 more.  The teenagers I know, for the most part, are smarter than many people give them credit.  A story is a story. They learn in their English classes about symbolism, which helps them to know that fiction isn't a true thing, that what happens in the book isn't what they should expect as real life.  You might say that maybe since I've never been in any situations like this I don't have the right to chime in on this.  But you'd be wrong.  I had very bad experiences in college, ones that even to this day, it is hard not to say that it was my own fault that it happened.  But not one of them do I blame on some book I read making me think it was okay.

Wow, this got a little bit deep and depressing I think.  I guess I just feel strongly about this topic.  Please comment below and tell me your feelings on this topic.  Do you totally disagree with me?  Do you somewhat see what I'm trying to say?  I want everyone to have their own opinion and be able to express it in my comments below, no name calling just because we disagree, let's talk about it, what do you say?

Discussion Challenge 2016 Sign Up Post

So, I've decided that I want to join into this Challenge, hosted by Nicole at  Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at It Starts at Midnight.   I don't know that I'm going to do more than one post a month, but I still want to try it out.  I've already got an idea I want to talk about tomorrow, so I thought I'd go ahead and do my sign up post tonight.  If you think this sounds like a good challenge, you can go read all the information on what to do HERE.  For now I'm going to set my goal to do about one discussion post a month.  So that will put me in the bottom level for my goal, 1-12:  Discussion Dabbler.  I'm okay with that for now.  If it goes well this year, then maybe I'll try for more next year if the challenge is continued.

I will do an update at the end of each month with my other Challenge updates.