Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The 3rd and final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy that I have been waiting on pins and needles for since last spring. Let's just say it was very intense. Didn't like it quite as much as the first two. Probably because what was so unique about the first two was the actual Hunger Games themselves. In this book, the rebels are at war with the Capitol. We've found out that District 13 wasn't destroyed in the original war as the Capitol led everyone to believe, they just moved underground. The Capitol left them there on their own because this was where the nuclear weapons had been made back then, and so they had their own way to fight back. Katniss has been rescued and brought back to District 13, along with as many people from District 12 that they could rescue before or after the Capitol bombed it and destroyed it. Peeta was not rescued, the Capitol is holding him, and we can only assume torturing him and using him to try to lure Katniss out so that she won't be the "Mockingjay" or face of the rebels. Katniss's mother and sister, as well as her friend Gale have all been rescued.

There have been Team Gale vs. Team Peeta factions since the last book. We really get into that whole thing in this book. In fact, there is even one scene very reminiscent of the tent scene between Edward and Jacob in Eclipse. Maybe it only was that way to me because I know the Twilight series inside and out, but still. How much influence does Twilight truly have on the YA authors of the future? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just remarking on it.

I think I like the way it ended, not sure. I as usual was reading as quick as possible to find out what happened. I will have to go back and read again just to make sure. And I'm sure I will. I already need to go back and read Catching Fire again, because since I've only read it one time all the way through, there is stuff I forgot that I need to revisit, and maybe that will help me make sense, enjoy more, this final book.

So, I recommend it to all who have read the series for it's closure, but if this had been the first book in the series, it wouldn't probably be as popular as it is.

Sabotaged by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Well, I posted this as a Waiting on Wednesday, last week I think, and then it was actually already out I saw the next night when I went into work at the bookstore. So, I checked it out. In this storyline, we rejoin Jonah and Katherine, siblings, Jonah one of the kids that had been snatched from time. This time they are going to help Andrea, also one of the missing kids, go back to her own time. Andrea was Virginia Dare, said to be the first child born in America from an English colony. She was part of the Roanoke colony that disappeared. In the current time, Andrea's adoptive parents had died in a car accident. When we first begin the trip back in time, Andrea sabotages the Elucidator, the thing that helps them talk to their contact in the future. And now they're stuck in the past, with no way of contact as far as they know. And at the wrong time as far as they know. Turns out someone named Second, told Andrea she could go back and save her adoptive parents first. This Second person wants to change history for the better. So many things on this trip are based on what he has done. They do end up at the right time, to save Virginia's father and do what they want her to do. But what the character who ends up being Second does changes history, and sends ripples through time. While trying to come back to the present, Jonah and Katherine get stuck in 1611, where they can fix things hopefully, and that is where the story ends.

Again, I love the history in these books. The disappearance of the colony at Roanoke is a mystery, and an intriguing one. There is also the word Croatoan that was found at this empty village that has led many to come up with all kinds of crazy stories on what happened. I like at the end where the author talks about all the research and the theories she found that are so much more likely to be what has happened. Great book, and can't wait for the next one! Still wondering what famous child in history that we will find out Jonah is. I think it's so great I was introduced to this series through reading the Mark Twain nominees.

Waiting on Wednesday - Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It's a weekly post for you to share what upcoming books you can't wait for.

I was having trouble coming up with books for the Waiting on Wednesday post, so I decided to so some Strict on Sale book research at the bookstore last week and I was sooooo excited to see there is a new book in the Shopaholic series!

In this book Becky has now been a mother for a little while, and still enjoys shopping, for the baby now. They're still living with Becky's parents while they try to buy a house. The financial world is in a bad spot, which means Luke is not happy. Becky decides to throw a party, on a budget of course, and this is where the big drama is supposed to go in. Obviously, can she stay on a budget? And can she arrange a party, that isn't quite as crazy and extravagant as she is? And it seems her shopaholic ways have been passed on to the baby Minnnie, leading to another set of problems. I am so excited for this, it is supposed to be published September 21st.

Gateway 2: The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

This was the 2nd I chose to read from the Gateway nominees. And it was also a very good one.

Our main character is Kyra, a 13 year old girl who has grown up as part of a polygamist religious cult. Her father has 3 wives, and they live in homes that are in a circle. She has 20 brothers and sisters, and 2 of the mothers are pregnant. Their leader is called The Prophet, and he has some of the men who are his Apostles, all old men. Kyra is a bit rebellious, but in secret. She takes walks outside the isolated compound that the community lives in, and one day she came across a mobile library truck, and began checking books out. Now this is wonderful for Kyra, because at the time the current Prophet took over when his father died, he had all the books burned. Not only is she reading books she shouldn't be, books like Bridge to Terabithia, The Borrowers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Anne of Green Gables, she also has built up a friendship/crush on a boy her age in their community named Joshua. Joshua wants to choose her when they grow up, and she wants to marry him. They have met in secret, held hands, kissed, made plans. She's even taught him to play piano in an attempt to be with him without sneaking around.

When we begin, her father has heard that the Prophet has brought his name up, which means good things for his family could be coming. The Prophet and the Apostles have big homes, with fancy furniture and all they can use. It turns out this good news is that Kyra has been chosen for her Uncle Hyrum, her father's 60 year old brother, who already has 6 wives.

This is a community where women are treated as property, and punished with beatings. Escaping is almost impossible. Children who are not quite right, if it is noticed when they are babies, well, they may be killed. At least since the new Prophet has taken over. The punishment that both Kyra and one of her younger sisters go through in this book is horrifying. The books is an intense read, and I could barely put it down.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

This is one of the Penguin box of YA advanced readers copies I got last month. The cover as you can see is very creepy looking, almost just like Rosemary's Baby.

Basically the premise is that this is a town where babies disappear out of their cribs all the time, only to be replaced with something that's not quite right. Normally these replacements die young, as what they are cannot deal with things in the normal human world. They're allergic to iron and consecrated ground and blood.

Our main character is Mackie. Mackie is a replacement who has somehow lived to be a teenager. He is allergic to all these things, but his family has helped him to survive somehow. He must make sure though that he keeps a low profile, as the town has in the past killed one other of these replacements for the kidnapping of the babies. It turns out Mackie is needed by these creatures, but the town needs him too. It is time for a sacrifice, and it turns out that it may be Mackie's friend Tate's younger sister that is the sacrifice. Mackie must figure out how to save her, as well as keep his secret from the town, and try to live the life of a teenager.

It is sometimes hard for me to get into YA books that have a male protagonist, and it was a bit at first with this. But once I got into it, I didn't want to put it down. I'm sure this will be a popular book with kids into this sort of story.

Good Girls Gone Bad by Jillian Medoff

A bargain chick lit book. I have a whole big shopping bag full of them. Over the summer, I kept one in my master bath to read during bubble baths only. I'm thinking that will be over for awhile as I want to spend all my time reading the books for the Gateway List and other books, and just read them straight through not having 3 or more books going at one time.

Anyway, I wasn't sure when or if I would get into this for sure. I mean, they end up killing, by accident, Janey's ex-boyfriend, or at least that is what the premise of the story is. It's about a group of women who join group therapy to try to help their issues. Most of the women are pretty obnoxious. Janey is our main character, and of course there are lots of things about her I connect with.

Some things that stuck out to me are where she talks about being invisible to guys like her ex-boyfriend Tobias. She talks about guys who are interested in her are ones who believe in conspiracy theories and have large science fiction collections. Which isn't a big deal to me, as I'm into these guys, the problem is that most of them, at least th eones that like me are really overweight. And I know it sounds shallow, but as someone who is constantly working on my own weight, I just am not attracted to someone who doesn't care. I don't get the "cute" nerd's attention.

She also talks about how she'll fantasize while she's in line somewhere, and it is very elaborate scenarios that she concocts. I do the same. When I'm stuck somewhere, like the cashwrap, or even when I'm out walking, I tend to construct whole elaborate fantasies of meeting a guy, like David Cook, and our whole meeting, into a relationship, all the way down the line. So much like me.

Later in the story they convince Janey to go out with a guy she met through a personal ad. She says she doesn't know how to date, which again, that is me. She talks about how she will begin fantasizing about their life together, wedding, kids, divorce, all things my mind will do to me to as soon as I begin to like a guy.

Janey also fantasizes about suicide, because her mom committed suicide. I don't fantasize it, but her reasons for thinking about it, have popped into my head at moments of being really depressed. So I connected with her there as well.

It was better than I thought it would be. And there's a part at the end that I was so mad for what the girls did to Janey that I had tears. So this is not a "light" fluffy chick lit, but a more emotional, thinking one.

Gateway 1: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

This was my first read for the 2011-2012 Gateway Award Possible Nominees. The title didn't give me any idea what it was going to be about. However, I should have known from reading Speak by this same author that this would be a very deep story. This was a VERY hard book to read. Yes, when I was a teen I read books like Go Ask Alice about drug use, and I read a biography of Karen Carpenter and her eating disorder. However, as with Speak, I felt a very personal connection to this one, and I'm sure that's what made it so hard. In Speak, I also had an experience like the main character. In Wintergirls, many of our main character Lia's thoughts are ones I've had myself. Now, Lia has an eating disorder, she's anorexic, and she cuts. Neither of which are things I do. However, the body image, the hateful things she says about herself in her mind, those are things I do to myself. At one point, she says she wishes she could throw up. I admit, I've wished I could be bulimic, because they can eat whatever they want, but then get rid of it. Yeah, yeah, I know it's bad, and that's why I'd never do it, but the fact is that it has crossed my mind.

Lia's best friend growing up, Cassie, has just been found dead in a motel room by herself. Cassie and Lia had grown apart over the past few years. Cassie's parents felt that Lia wasn't a good role model after she'd been put into a clinic to help get over her past anorexic episodes. One of them was a car accident where Lia passed out from low blood sugar, and Cassie was in the car. We do learn that Cassie was bulimic, and into alcohol and drugs. So not quite the angel her parents believed.

We hear all of Lia's thoughts, we hear the ways she figures out to try to keep at the weight she wants instead of where her doctor wants her to be. Very hard read, but a good one.

Waiting on Wednesday - Sabotaged

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It's a weekly post for you to share what upcoming books you can't wait for!

Got to busy with back to school meetings last year and didn't get a blog for this done. But this week, I'm excited for another book that comes out next Tuesday, Sabotaged by Margaret Peterson Haddix, 3rd in the Missing Series. I read the first book in this series as part of the Mark Twain possible nominees last fall. It was about some adopted kids who all of a sudden seemed to be moving to the same town, where people were taking an interest in them, and weird things were happening. It turned out that they had all been kidnapped from the past, kids who would have died in history, saved at the last moment, so that it still seemed in the past they had died, but now they had another chance to live. And all our kids in this had been "famous" kids. In the first book we get transported back in time at the end of the story to save two 15th century English princes as they are about to be assassinated.

The 2nd book was about saving these boys, and putting them back in to the time record without messing their own futures up. And each book I believe will continue to go back in past to right these wrongs.

The 3rd book is going to take us to the Lost Colony of Roanoke to save a missing girl from that time.

Primal by Robin Baker

So, every time I was straightening the fiction section at the bookstore, this book caught my eye. Could be the eye on the cover, the title of the book, the description on the back, whatever, I wanted to read it. It sounded as if it would be similar to the tv show Lost, but with more sex. So I knew I had to get it. First I checked to see if it would ever be a strip cover return, but no, it would always be a whole copy return. So I knew I'd have to buy it. With one larger paycheck from the bookstore this summer, I went ahead and picked it up. And even though I have almost 300 books sitting in my office still needing to be read, I picked it up as soon as I finished another book.

Anyway, back to the book itself. It is about a group of graduate students and a renowned scientist who go on a field trip to an isolated island in the Pacific. It turns out this island is home to a population of chimpanzees, that were brought as sort of an experiment to see what happens when they're taken from all the other social groups and made to figure things out on their own. And it seems when disaster strikes the people, the boat sinks, their leader disappears, assumed dead on the boat, and all their clothes also are gone in a crazy wind storm, well now, they are left on their own, to see what people do when away from society. And they do turn primal. And this book has LOTS of sex, and not good sex. When going back to nature, the men become uncivilized, as do some of the women.

However it was a bit hard to get into the story. It's not told as a story really at first, but as the author trying to figure out what had happened to the survivors. We do get a tiny part that is like a story, but then that ends, and we're back to the author trying to piece the happenings together through evidence brought back. And then the very end we're in the story again, as the author travels back with some of the survivors to this island to try to tie up some loose ends. Not sure I'd recommend this, don't know if I'd ever want to read it again, but it wasn't a bad story, just hard to read.

Devilish by Maureen Johnson

If you'll remember from my review a while back on the book 13 Little Blue Envelopes, while I knew of this author from seeing her books at the bookstore I work at, I only decided to read her stuff after following her on Twitter for the past several months. She is so hilarious on there, that I thought her books would be awesome. Now, the first I read, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, was okay, but didn't quite excite me like I thought it would. I have to say that I enjoyed Devilish quite a bit more. I could see the author's humor quite a bit more in this book, and I'm sure that is part of what made me enjoy it so much. I don't remember seeing this book in our store, because I know the cupcake on the cover would have attracted me right away. :-)

Basically our main character is Jane, and she has a best friend named Allison that she kind of protects/supports in all her embarrassing moments. The past year there was a really bad thing that happened to Allison, and so starting senior year at their Catholic school, she's hoping to turn things around by getting a little sister. Only, when a girl finally comes up to her, she throws up on her, and makes things worse. However there is a girl who actually has decided to be Allison's little, and in turn she kind of gives her a makeover. Now Jane is kind of a tough girl, her hairstyle and attitude and rebellion at her Catholic school show that to the world. And Jane senses something weird is going on. All of a sudden not only has Allison changed, she's now not talking to Jane very much.

As the title of the book might give you some clues, there has been a deal made with a demon, and Jane and Allison must try to find their way out of it, or give their souls up. Funny, and another thing I loved, was that it wasn't predictable, lots of things happened that I just didn't see coming. And I do love when a book isn't just cookie cutter so I have to read on to see what happens because I have no idea. So looking forward to reading more of Maureen Johnson's books in the future.

And final note, I get to be a reader/selector for the Gateway list of possible nominees for the 2011-2012 year. I'm so excited! I'll chronicle them just like I did the Mark Twain and Truman nominees last year.

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

This is part of a boxed set that Penguin publisher sent to the bookstore. I actually received 2 of the other books singly through a Shelf Awareness giveaway, but when I saw that the store had all 5 they had advertised to give away that week, I took the whole box home. (After some convincing by Mary at the store) I chose to read them in order of when they are going to be published, and this one is supposed to be due out this August.

As I first began reading it, I was immediately reminded of a book by Suzanne Weyn that I purchased a recent book fair at the school I work at. It was called somewhat unoriginally titled Reincarnation. So I guess that gives you an idea what The Eternal Ones is about. In Reincarnation we go through several different times, cavemen, ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, World War II, Salem witch trials, all kinds of famous time periods. And some we barely touch on. Also the characters in this book sometimes change, like the girl is a guy sometimes and the guy is the girl. I did enjoy the history, and if you look back on my blog, I'm sure I reviewed this book at some point in the past year.

Unlike the Weyn book, Miller's book is much more detailed, and has actual evil involved. Our main character's name is Haven, in this life at least. Ever since she was a little girl Haven has been having visions, and talking about needing to find someone named Ethan. Her grandmother Imogene believes she has a demon and enlists the town preacher to help her. It seems Haven has been cured, the visions seem to stop, until Haven is a senior in high school and sees a young celebrity on the news who has been accused of murder. Haven knows/feels that this is the Ethan she has been looking for. He lives in New York though, and after Haven's latest vision, her grandmother has tightened back up Haven's life, and has now told her she may not go to college in the fall.

Haven's mother gives her a box of things her father had collected before he died in a car accident. Her father had contacted a society in New York called the Ouroboros Society, because he believed his daughter may have been reincarnated, and that was their specialty. In fact, I believe you can even go check out this group as part of the marketing campaign for the book at http://www.theouroborossociety.com/.

Once I got into this, I didn't want to put it down. I will definitely be handselling at the store, put it as my staff rec, as well as recommending it to students at school. I will also suggest my library media specialist look into purchasing it when she has funds. Another website to check if you're interested is http://www.theeteralones.com/.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus)

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It's a weekly post for you to share what upcoming books you can't wait for!

This week I am very eagerly awaiting the latest book by Rick Riordan about Percy Jackson and the other Camp Half-Blood characters we grew to love in The Lightning Thief and it's four sequels.

The info about this says it will pick up after Percy has defeated Kronos and goes back with his friends to rebuild Camp Half-Blood. Specifically we will be joining a new generation of demigods, but fortunately it says they will get a little help from our favorite demigods, which would be Percy, Anabeth, and hopefully Grover as well. This is currently set to be released in October 2010. At one time it was listed as October 22, which would have been my birthday, but since then Riordan tweeted that it was actually a week or so earlier.

Now, if only someone would go back and re-do the movie, which messed up soooooo much from the books, that anyone who had read them came out of the theater disappointed. Just ask my students that I read it with in our Greater Gator class. :-)

glee: The Beginning by Sophia Lowell

So, I was very excited to read the prequel to the TV show Glee. And I wasn't disappointed. The only thing I can say that is kind of disappointing is not enough Brittany, she is hilarious on the show, but of course doesn't get much time. Also missing is the sting of Sue Sylvester. Yes, she's in the book, doing the same thing, but it's not quite as good as when it is brought to life in the TV show. In fact, most of the adults are kind of on the sidelines for the book. In the book we see how Rachel gets started with Glee club, as well as many other things like that. We see Mercedes with her crush on her best friend Kurt. We see Finn and find out he is intrigued by Rachel. We also see what leads up to Quinn and her predicament that is on the show. I like that we get to meet Rachel's two dads in the book, and hope that we get to see them on the show this year. It's also nice to get a look into Mercedes's family life, as well as some more insight into Tina and Artie. I really recommend this as a quick, fun read for anyone who loves the show, or in other words, is a Gleek like I am.

Lobster Land by Susan Carlton

I wanted to like this book so much. The author was so nice when I emailed my request to get an advanced copy. She talked about how authors loved teachers and librarians. And when I got the book? I got an awesome little package of goodies wrapped in a pretty bow. Unfortunately, I can't give it my best review.

Sure, I can see how a teen would like it. It's got the angst, the romance, the wanting to get away from parents who just don't understand. But unfortunately it just wasn't my cup of tea. One thing that may have kind of flavored my mood as I read was at the beginning. Now, yes, I know this is from a teenager's point of view, but when Charlotte, our main character, calls John Walsh, the host of America's Most Wanted pathetic, and says he should basically "get over" his son's kidnapping and murder? I just really couldn't stand that. Maybe it's because I was a kid when all that happened and it was a horrible news story that I remember hearing about and feeling for that man and his family.

Some cute things about the story, the character is a "brain". I do like that part. And their parents named them all based on the book Charlotte's Web. Our main character Charlotte, her 4 year old sister is named Fern, and their 9 month old brother is E.B. or as Charlottle calls him, Eb. So that's pretty cute. I do also love hearing about the setting of the book, an island near Portland, Maine. I've never been to this part of the country, but I really would like to. So I enjoyed hearing about the ferry they had to take so they could go to school, and all that. Unfortunately this is definitely a teen book, the f-word is used a bit, and so I couldn't pass it on to my 8th graders in good consious. So, while I think teens might enjoy it, it just won't be one I pass on. And I have a cool, autographed copy too. Maybe I could donate it to a high school library.

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

I'm a bit ashamed to start this blog out by saying, I'd seen Robin Wasserman's books in our teen section for at least 4 or 5 years, yet I'd never read any till just now. I had picked up this very book, and read the back several times, so I was interested in it, just never got the commitment to reading it until I began following her on Twitter.

This was as good as I expected. It reminds me of one of my favorite series, the Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld, as well as a book I just read for the Truman nominees, The Adoration of Jenna Fox.

Our main character is Lia Khan, one of, or maybe "the" most popular girl. Lia has just been in a horrible car accident. Now this is a futuristic world, the cars drive themselves, so this should never have happened. Another thing is that it shouldn't even have been Lia, it should have been her younger sister Zo in the car. Lia should have died, but this is the future remember, they can download your brain and put you into a new body. It's a robot, but very lifelike. Normally, if you have time, you can get your new body to look just like you did. However, because of the abruptness of this accident, Lia's new body is only one that is similar in looks to her. Her family, her friends, many in the world, do not accept this. They are called, Skinners. One boy does stick up for her, Auden, a boy she would never have looked at before this happened. She also must go to support groups for other kids like her, where she soon meets people who take her to meet Jude. Another skinner. Only these skinners don't want to be integrated back into society, they want to be recognized for what they are.

Lia has to decide what she wants to be, who she wants to be. Along the way she learns some sad htings about her family and friends, and her boyfriend.

The ending is a cliffhanger, totally leaves you wanting more. So I was excited to see that the 2nd will come out in paperback in a month I think. I've got my copy ordered. :-)

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The latest vampire novel. A HUGE book. I kind of wished I had a Nook to read it on as big as it is. Once again the vampires are created by a virus, and in this case a military researched and modified virus. The program is being tested on criminals with no family who are on death row. They are told they are being given a chance to not be put to death if only they help out this project. We also get an idea where the virus comes from through email/letters at the beginning of the book. A young girl who gets dropped off at a convent, Amy, gets picked up to be part of this program. The agent who picks her up, has a past that makes him not sure about bringing this girl into the project. Things go wrong, of course, and the "vampires" escape into the world. Changing everything. At that point we go into a future world where people live in colonies, and as far as we know, this one colony is all that is probably left in the world.

In the end, Amy shows up and leads these people to where there are other survivors/colonies/armies fighting the vampires. I find it interesting where the story goes with how these vampires actually behave, and what happens with Amy. Not sure if it is really left open for a sequel. I suppose it is, but in the end, it'd be nice to just have one story.

It started slow, kind of slow in the middle, and then once the action picks up, the story does too. So I would recommend this if you are into a long read. It gets good if you just hang in there.

Pink Slip Party by Cara Lockwood

Now after reading Bride Needs Groom, I was thinking that most mass market size romance books are more the traditional "romance" style than the chick lit that I prefer. This was TOTALLY the kind of book I enjoy. It had some really goofy parts that made me laugh out loud, as well as the kind of "romance" that I like to read about. I think this is the first book by Cara Lockman that I've read, and I'm sure I only picked it up because it was a strip cover that sounded good, but she will now be added to my list of chick lit authors to check on new books, or past books going to bargain. :-) From the list of her books in the front, I think maybe she writes teen books as well, so I will check those out as well.

Anyway, as you might or might not get from the title, our main character, Jane, has just gotten laid off. So the book is all about her trying to deal with unemployment. She is an art major, so of course doesn't really have a lot of the qualifications needed for many jobs. Soon other people from where she works have been laid off and they come up with a revenge plot on the office supply company they worked for. Where, ironically, Jane used her art degree to design pink slips. Jane had also been dating one of her bosses, and he also dumps her the day she gets fired. Jane's adventures at the unemployment office, as well as with her stoner ex-boyfriend are so funny. And I love the response letters we get to read that are from companies that Jane has applied to, or else from her credit card company saying they won't accept her organs as payment. It reminds me quite a bit of shopaholic in that bit.

I did mark a few parts in this book.

1st she talks about having a crush on her brother's friend Kyle, and how sometimes it is just nice to have a crush and get to flirt, even if it's not going anywhere, although for Jane, it does. I feel the same way. Sometimes it is just nice to have a cute boy to crush on and flirt with, even if you know there is no way anything is ever going to happen, and I am completely okay with that.

However, later, this Kyle, who did kiss her, and she thought was flirting with her, brings to her family's house his ex-girlfriend. So now she wonders if he was really flirting with her or if she can't even read dating signals anymore. Again, something I've been dealing with too. I hate when I think someone is flirting with me, and they totally aren't. It sucks. Of course it has been so long since anyone I would want to flirt with me has flirted with me, that I am pretty much out of practice at those signals, so I was probably completely off track.

Towards the end, when things start to wrap up, she says something that I wonder if it is true and would work for me. She says she's learning to be less critical. That hating things is a lot easier than admitting to what you like. And that if you're critical of the whole world it means in most cases that you're being the most critical of yourself. That last part is totally true for me, I am so critical of myself it's not even funny. However she goes on to say that it's better to put yourself out there and get hurt than to never take the chance at all. And I'm not sure about that one. If every time you've ever put yourself out you've been hurt, when do you learn to stop? If you keep trying, isn't that the definition of insanity if you don't get any new results?

The last page I marked is actually in some questions with the author at the end of the book. When asked where does she get her inspiration for writing humor, the way she talks about her family totally reminds me of mine. She talks about how she and her brother would mimic Saturday Night Live skits long after they wore out their funniness. My family does that too. We have our own "inside" jokes that are often movie quotes, or even SNL skits.

I really enjoyed this book. Will probably loan it to my sister Anna first, as I think the art major thing, and the having trouble finding a job will really be easy for her to connect to.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Fall

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It's a weekly post for you to share what upcoming books you can't wait for!

As I get ready to blog about The Passage by Justin Cronin, I remember that I am waiting for the sequel to The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro called The Fall. In the strain, vampires are created by a virus. This is the 2nd installment in what is supposed to be a trilogy. New York city has been taken over by the virus, and soon it will overtake the country and the world. The master's plan to get new world and old world vampires into a war seems to be working. And it is up to our team from the CDC to fight this virus. Our team leader is Eph, who is also dealing with ex-wife, who has been turned, trying to turn their son. They are also relying on help from the holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian.

Since it's been awhile since I read The Strain, I'm hoping I'll be able to jump in pretty quickly and get back to speed when this comes out in September.

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Started this book, well, started by following this guy on Twitter because of how funny I'd heard it was, and it is. The book is funny, but has a bit more story to it than you'd think. It makes the quotes a little more heartwarming to read the stories that go with some of them. It's also interesting to hear that the dad is a doctor. You kind of might assume that he's more of a blue collar worker from some of the quotes, but not so. A fun read, I probably should have waited for paperback to purchase though.

Another short blog. Sorry, like I said in the last one, probably not a really good time for me to be doing this. Maybe I'll come back and revisit these another time.

Bride Needs Groom by Wendy Markham

Don't remember when I got this, I know it's mine, because it's stripped cover. My sister returned it to me just recently. I should know that normally mass market romance books are not really the ones I like, but it wasn't too bad. A lot of stereotypes of Italians in it, some fun, some annoying.

Not much to say. Fun, quick read. Not sure if I'll put Wendy Markham on my list of chick lit authors to check for new books by.

Could maybe be the wrong time to be blogging about romantic books as I'm currently feeling a little out of the loop on all this kind of stuff, the chick lit I'm reading right now is pretty funny, so hopefully I'll have a better review for it in a few days.