Review: Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt

Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt by G.R. Reader

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Looking forward to reading this soon. I've tried to keep up with the subject on which this book is based, but I'm positive I have missed at least half of the conflict. (This book is 211 pages long, I had to have missed quite a bit.)

The preface, titled "How this book got written", gave the basic background of the conflict and illuminated why the author chose to pen this book. While critics may contend that this book is just a glorified "revenge piece" and has no place on Goodreads, I believe this book is valuable as a documentation of the experiences of those "21" reviewers who were censored in their attempt to speak out against behavior they found unfavorable. I believe this book shows that it is not "off-topic" to discuss author behavior. As a consumer I would honestly like to know what type of author I am supporting. Even if my support only amounts to having their book on my huge to be read shelf.

I have rating this four stars at this time based on the skim read I have done of the book, my interest in the book, and my opinion on it's validity. It is my right to rate as I see fit and this is me exercising that right.



View all my reviews

Review: Fortunately, the Milk

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A boy and girl are left at home with their father while their mother goes out of town. Unfortunately there is no milk in the house for their cereal. So the father sets off to what he thinks is a short trip to the corner shop for milk. Little does he know how that container of milk will save not just his kids from hunger but the world as well.

Great storytelling for such a short book. Funny and imaginative. I will recommend this to all my younger cousins.



View all my reviews

Review: After the Ball

After the Ball by Sarah Cross

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Back in May 2012, I picked up Sarah Cross' Kill Me Softly from my local library. 

 

Kill Me Softly was about a girl named Mira who runs away to the town of her birth. That town just happens to be inhabited by people from fairytales. I enjoyed that story well enough and rated it 3 stars on GR. (See Review) 

 

While looking through books I have read in the past year, I came upon Kill Me Softly. And I wondered what else Sarah Cross had written. Then I discovered this short story related to Kill Me Softly and the fairytale town of Beau Rivage. (If you want to download and read it, Cross has the story available on her site. Here)

 

This short story was about the Cinderella Curse. I found it entertaining and liked that characters a lot. It plays out like a modern version of Cinderella. Except Dusty (Cinderella) doesn't really like Max (Prince Charming), well she likes him but she doesn't want to be with him.?!?! I can totally understand that, dude tells me he loves me after dancing with him three nights in a row, I'm gonna give him some side-eye as well. 

 

 

 

But anyways it was a pretty good story and I wish Cross would write more. I'm looking for her book Dull Boy because it seems like it would be interesting. 

View all my reviews

Review: Starcrossed

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Not the worst and not the best. I enjoyed the idea of the story. The constant plot twists that really went nowhere and the glaring similarities to a certain book that still makes me cringe took away from the story for me. I am just very thankful there was no love triangle...even if there was instalove. Lucas was a bit too bossy for my tastes and Helen seemed to always need rescuing even though she is apparently superwoman.





View all my reviews

Review: The Witch Of Blackbird Pond

The Witch Of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



FIVE STARS for a captivating story!!


Kit Tyler comes from a very different place than Puritan Connecticut. She is from a land with brilliant sunshine, crashing waves, and warm sand. When her grandfather dies she has the option to stay in her island home or strike out for an unfamiliar environment living with the only family she has left. Once in this new country she is surprised by the strict lifestyle she must adhere to living with her relatives. She is used to freedom and being in control of her own actions. She never dreamed that befriending an outsider could threaten her life. 

The main theme of this story that stood out to me the most, revolves around Kit finding her identity within a new world. Once carefree and somewhat spoiled, she is now thrust into a life of constant piety and hard work. The beautiful silks she once wore are replaced with wool and calico. The warm, bright sunshine is now replaced with diamond-like snowfall. She must change who she is and where she belongs. 

I remember reading this book for the first time in elementary school. Don't ask me when cause I cannot tell you. All I remember is the joy I felt connecting a troubling time in American History learned from my Social Studies lessons with this free-spirited girl named Kit. I was not ignorant of the sadness and despair caused by the Witch Trials in Colonial America during my childhood. I have always looked for answers to my curiosity within the pages of books and encyclopedias. Whether this book stirred that intense need to know the hows and whys of Witch Hunting in America or I chose this book because of my need to find out more about the culture of the time, I do not recall. But I know this book stood out as a fond memory and when I saw the old battered 1980 copy in one of my local Goodwill Thrift Stores, I had to buy it. 

It is truly amazing how you can see a book and suddenly remember that you have read it and you believe you enjoyed it. You may not remember exactly what the story was, who all the characters were, or how it ended. But in your memory you remember that you have held these words in your mouth before and it was delicious. As a child reading a book, you may not have noticed the great foreshadowing. The excellent pace and how the author withheld the climax to build up this long forgotten world so foreign to your own. You may remember feeling connected to the protagonist but don't know why, perhaps you too felt like you were a colorful bird among wrens and sparrows. 

I can easily see why this won the Newberry Award.



View all my reviews

Review: Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renée Russell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was right about this being a fast read. I finished this little gem in one night....stayed up until 3 am reading it but I had to be a "human alarm clock" for my husband anyways.

Nikki Maxwell is anything but cool, in fact she is a DORK. But how many of us were not dorks at 14? I know I was one of the biggest dorks in my school. I have quite a few embarrassing accidents in my past due to my dorkiness. That is exactly why I found Nikki such an easy character to relate to. Though I never had the artistic talent Nikki has, I was more like her book crazed bffs, her disastrous exploits in the world of Middle School were very reminiscent of my disastrous exploits into the world of 6th grade and 7th and 8th and......oh who am I kidding.... I still have disastrously embarrassing moments....and I am 28!

Guess you are never really too old to be a dork. :)



View all my reviews

Graphic Novels and Falafels

A lot of my online time is spent switching between Goodreads, Tumblr, and Google Reader. Tonight I was cruising through my Tumblr and saw a post by Neil Gaiman which was a reblog of someone's post with a youtube video of an Arthur episode. I remember this episode from when I was younger and my brothers would watch the show with me after school. It deals with Sue Ellen's encounter with Gaiman. He encourages her to write a graphic novel. The graphic novel itself reminds me quite a bit of Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. It also talks quite a bit about Falafels. (Mmmmm Fooooood) I think my favorite line from the episode is "You can't just abandoned your falafel like that!"

Finished: Outpost by Ann Aguirre

Outpost by Ann Aguirre

My rating: Not Rated Yet



Well the first finished book of 2013. Not sure what to rate this yet until I write up my review and figure out where I feel it stands. There were things I liked a lot about the later half of this book...but there were also things I didn't like, mostly in the first half. I guess I will just have to sit down and sort them out. Expect a review shortly.

This ebook was borrowed from my library's Overdrive Digital Library.



View all my reviews

Review: The Selection

The Selection by Kiera Cass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Not as bad as I thought it would be, but not as good as it should have been.

I am going to make this fairly simple and separate this into things I liked and things I did not like about The Selection.

Things I Liked:
1) The background on the History of Illea. I found the background to be believable and explanatory of the society in which they live. It was interesting that the members of society were separated into castes based on what service they could provide for society.

2) Maxon and America seemed to have good chemistry. It started out as a sort of friendship and then of course things got complicated. But they seem to need each other in a way. Maxon doesn't have to put on a show when he is around America and she can be herself as well. I was glad she opened up to him from the beginning and didn't distance herself just because of her past relationship.

3) Maxon seems like a pretty decent man. I'm sure he has his flaws, one probably being that he has been way to sheltered but that is to be expected, but beyond that Maxon seems like the kind of Prince who really cares for his subjects. Which leads me to my 4th thing I liked.

4) Maxon listens to America's insight about problems in society. He listens to her when she tells him about starvation, children being punished harshly for law breaking, and even cuts back the payments made to the girls family so that he can improve things in society such as education and help end starvation. If you have ever seen the movie Ever After you will see a similarity between this in The Selection and how Henry reacts to Danielle's insights into society. Henry was originally sort of your typical spoiled Prince. After meeting Danielle he decides he wants to build a University where anyone can study. (And he wants to invite the gypsies to the ball. LOL.) I kept picturing Maxon as Prince Henry and imagining him busting into his parents bedroom ranting about how there are people starving and how could this be happening. He seems to want to do a good job as leader.

5) There are rebels attacking the palace....and America is not the one leading them. I know it sounds sort of weird for me to stay but I think this adds an important element to the story. It contrasts the wealth and leisure the royal family enjoy. Here they have this wonderful palace and fancy clothes, but they also have to worry about rebels attacking the palace and which set of rebels it might be.

6) America stands up for her maids. I liked that she cared about them and did not ask them to do things for her which she could do herself. She was rather independent. (Or as independent as you can be when you are a potential princess.)

Things I Did Not Like:

1) Most of the background history came in one big info dump in Chapter 17. I felt it would have been better to sprinkle it throughout the book or at least have this sort of scene in the beginning of the book. Instead of the girls in The Selection reviewing history of Illea, I think it would have been better if America's mother was quizzing the girls (May and America) on the history of the country. Then again it might have been better absorbed in the 17th chapter than if it was in the 2nd or 3rd chapter. Who knows.

2) Aspen and America have so much of a "physical connection" Lust and Hormones that they do not think about the gravity of the consequences to their actions. I mean I get it...I really do but HELLO....bad things can happen guys. Really bad. These are deadly games to play.

3) Celeste, way to stereotypical villan. I expected the girl to come strolling around the corner and grab America, tie her to some train tracks, and then stand there twirling a fake mustache while rubbing her hands together. GIRL WAS SERIOUSLY OFF KILTER! She was too over the top. Nothing she did was shocking because I pegged her as the underhanded and dramatic one from the beginning. So predictable.

4) I could just about predict EVERYTHING that would happen. The happiness America radiated while having her picture taken, got her chosen as a contestant. Maxon was going to start to like her as more than a friend. Aspen would show up at the palace and what she thought was a relationship with another girl would not be a relationship with another girl. Crazy Witch Celeste would totally douse Kriss with whatever was in the wine glass. Which she did..and of course Kriss ran away. Spoiling the party. I even knew Maxon was going to not believe America when she told him Celeste was a bad egg. While this is great and all when it turns out I am right, I wanted some twists, some turns, I wanted to be surprised!

5) America makes unwise choices. She does not consider the consequences of her actions. She does not straight up tell Maxon from the beginning that Celeste is cray cray. She does not form an alliance with the other girls to get Celeste booted. Her first interaction with the Prince begins with her getting a sudden case of claustrophobia and trying like some mad animal to escape from the palace into the garden. Then she yells at him. She DOES NOT tell Maxon that Aspen is the guy she was trying to avoid by not going home. (True Maxon might have taken it a little too far and found some sort of heartbreaking punishment or sent Aspen to war.) And I really wish she would have told Aspen from the start to stay away from her. Or at least kept her maids in the room...

So because of these reasons I had to give this just three stars. I plan to read the next book in the series because I hope to see some changes and growth for America and Maxon as well. Plus I really want to see Celeste fall flat on her face....but I predict that might be a long time coming. I am pretty sure Celeste will be the only other contestant in the running besides America. It will come down to these two and I want to see who Maxon chooses.



View all my reviews

Review: Quidditch Through the Ages

Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



You know, I don't know why being a Potterhead I never made an effort to read this before now. I guess I just didn't really care that much about the Quidditch portion of the books because while interesting I always considered them filler. After reading this, I might look at Quidditch in a whole new light. I felt the background of this wizard sport was interesting. As the "author" talks about the early broom sports in Europe you can see the bits and pieces that would later come together to form the game we all wish we could play. As with all of J.K. Rowling's books this one is detailed and comes together in such a way that readers forget they are reading about a fictional sport and begin to believe that Quidditch could be a reality. I liked the part about America having it's own broom sport based off an element of a European sport. Like that has never happened in the real world. ;)



View all my reviews