Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

To start off, I have to admit that I'd heard not so good things about Going Bovine from librarians in my school district. Of course I follow authors on Twitter who say good things about it. So conflicting reviews, and the fact that so far the books haven't sounded like something I really wanted to read after a quick scan of book jackets, had kept me from reading any of Libba Bray's books until now. What finally got me to pick up this book, Beauty Queens, and read it, was a review in Entertainment Weekly magazine. They described it as hilarious. So, I checked it out from my bookstore and set in to form my own opinion.

First I was glad that by checking it out I didn't have to carry around the book with the cover. Sorry, would have felt really weird carrying about a book with a picture of a girl in a bikini and machine gun on the cover, especially since I think it was just her body, the head was cut off. It took me a while to get into the book. I could tell right away it was going to make fun of beauty pageants, and to start off it seemed pretty much like what you'd expect. But as I read further in, it got to be way different, and more complex in what the jokes and themes were. We got to know most of the beauty pageant contestants pretty well, and they all had something to hide you could say. Now, I will say that a lot of the themes were pretty mature. And so I would not recommend this to a middle school student, unless they were a really advanced reader. I know that at that age I was reading VC Andrews books, but I was one of those advanced readers, and my parents would probably have taken them away if they'd known what they were about. But high school would be okay. Themes include homosexuality, promiscuity, sex changes, etc. Not that I have a problem with any of them, just know that if I was in a school library, especially at middle school level, there could be issues.

There were some of the funniest lines I've read in a book in a long time. First was this little section (Warning, mature theme here):

p. 148: Nicole is saying: "But only after she accidentally has sex with him."

"Hold up. How do you accidentally have sex with somebody?" Adina scoffed. "Is she all, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see your penis there'?"

Freaking hilarious! I laughed out loud when I was reading that. Unfortunately I forgot to mark with post it notes the other spots that made me laugh that hard, so I can't share those with you. But suffice it to say that Entertainment Weekly was correct, this is one funny book.

Only one thing I disliked, the book went back and forth between calling them by their names and their states, like Taylor is Miss Texas. But sometimes I couldn't remember who they were by their states, it was easier when I saw their names. So I just wish that would have been a bit more clear. I can't end on a negative note though, I have to again say this was a really funny book.

Top 10 Tuesday: Books You Want Made Into Movies

I know, I know, it's Wednesday. But when I was scrolling through my blog reading list this morning, I saw this meme on other's and thought it was such a neat topic that I'd join in this week and now have something to do on Tuesdays as well. This is sponsored by The Broke and the Bookish, and I look forward to participating in this because I enjoy lists as well. Now I thought this would be fun, so let's see if I can come up with 10 books!

1. In the Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I love this series, and since zombie movies really seem to need a good storyline anymore, I think this would be a great one to start with. And then the two sequels could make for a series of movies.

2. The Gone series by Michael Grant. I love this story about a bunch of kids left alone when all the adults, or people over a certain age just disappear. There are some great monsters and scary parts that could really draw in people.

3. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Yes, I know they already made a movie. But I'd like them to re-do it, making it more true to the book so that they can go on and make the rest of the books into movies as well.

4. Another series I'd love to see re-done that they messed up on the very first book is Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. That movie was so bad, they even had the mother killed at the end of the movie, thereby screwing up any chance of making the rest of the books into movies.

5. I also think the Suite Scarlett series by Maureen Johnson could make for a very humorous movie. Especially if they let the author help out around the set and with the script writing!

6. Delirium by Lauren Oliver. In my love of dystopian books lately, I think this would be a great movie. There are so many scenes that would be so dramatic in a theater.

7. Another dystopian book I've really enjoyed lately is Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I can see as this is supposed to be a series, it might even make for a good tv series.

8. I do think the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer would make for a great movie, or again I could see them as a tv series. On the WB or UPN. :-)

9. I think that after Julie and Julia was such a hit, and Eat, Pray, Love too, that another memoir that would be fun would be The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. It would be so fun to see her travel to all the different Little House on the Prairie locations and the story was so entertaining it wouldn't even have to be a documentary, it could be done as a fun movie like the two I mentioned at the beginning of this.

10. Finally, wow, there are so many that I love, trying to find one more that I think would make a good movie. I think the book Deadly by Julie Chibbaro would be an intersting historical fiction movie about Typhoid Mary. I would go see it.

Wow, I did it!