The Fault in Our Stars

I had heard rave review after rave review on this book, and being a John Green fan via YouTube, I figured this was a book I should check out. I bought it back in February, but put off reading it for a while. Everyone had told me I would bawl my eyes out, keep the tissues close, and I really didn't feel like being brokenhearted. 

When I finally did start reading this book, I read it rather quickly, in like four days. It held my attention, but is also a pretty quick read. And I honestly did not cry during this book. It is heartbreaking. But it was a bit predictable, so in a way I prepared myself for what was coming.

I've really had a hard time putting into words my feeling about this book. And maybe if I manage to come up with the proper words I will update my review. So for now, I will just address the complaints I have heard from people.

I really enjoyed this book and know it will be one I will read over and over again. It's simple. And to me, really realistic and relatable. That was the biggest complaint I had heard from people, that it was unrealistic, that Hazel and Gus are nothing like real teenagers. But Hazel (minus cancer) is exactly how I was when I was a teenager. I didn't quite recite poetry like she does, but she reminded me so much of myself at that age, it is almost weird. And even Gus, (again, minus the cancer) reminded me a lot of my own high school boyfriend. So like I said, they seemed really realistic and relatable, at least to me. 

I was really impressed with John Green's ability to write from the point of view of a female teenager. I kept feeling surprised that it was actually written by a guy. Some people said it was just a copy of all his other works, but this is the first JG book I have read, and it didn't remind me of his YouTube videos, and I watch him all the time.

The only things I didn't really like about this book were...

One, the whole smoking metaphor. I understand it. I get the point Augustus is trying to make, but this book is geared towards teens and I just picture a bunch of teens trying to get their hands on a pack of cigarettes to be just like Augustus Waters. I know, he is quirky and what not, but I didn't really feel like that was necessary. You don't need to buy a pack of cigarettes to be cool or make a point, okay kids??

And two, - slight SPOILER here -I wasn't crazy about the Peter Van Houten character. Obviously you are not supposed to like him. And it all makes more sense once you learn his back story. But I just felt like he was unnecessary fluff in the story. Like, the cancer isn't enough crap these characters have to deal with? Hazel really needs more disappointment in her life? Am I the only one who felt this way? But, the world isn't a wish granting factory I guess, right?

But regardless, a really good quick read that I will recommend to anyone. I picture this translating really well into a movie, given they didn't change the story to much. 

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Being a huge fan of Tina Fey this book had been on my to-read list for a long time. Sadly, it didn't live up to my hopes. Admittedly a little slow, I had to force myself through it, just for the sake of saying I've read it, but I kept hoping I would find something better in the next chapter.

Defiantly written for older people, she lists off so many actors who I have no idea who they are I feel a little lost but don't care enough to google them all. Plus, if it were a movie it would be rated R for all the language. Why did she feel the need to swear so much?

I felt like I was reading a biography about Liz Lemon - from the foot phobia even down to the piss in jars - but I guess you are supposed to write about what you know, right?

There is basically an entire chapter about how much she loves gays. Okay, we get it, you're a liberal. 

She also goes on about how racism is terrible, but still all the while making racist jokes throughout the entire book. 

Also, I feel like 75% of it is trying to argue that women are funny - but she's not very convincing in that argument in author form.

If you are a fan of SNL or 30 Rock it's a decent read with some interesting bits. But all in all it just seems like a random string of thoughts with blimps of someone's life history, with an abrupt empty ending

The Defining Decade

I FINALLY finished reading the Defining Decade. Remember how I started reading that forever ago? October of 2012 to be exact. Ridiculous. I basically forgot about it. But I committed to finally finish it as one of the hopefully many books I will read this year. 

The Defining Decade helps you open your eyes of how important your twenties are and makes a convincing argument as to why you shouldn't just waste them away.

Such a seriously good read! I won't go on about it, I will just share with you a few of my favorite quotes and bits that I found that really spoke to me that might speak to you too;

"I feel like I'm in the middle of the ocean. Like I could swim in any direction but I can't see land on any side, so I don't know which way to go."

"He felt overwhelmed by the prospect that he could swim anywhere or do anything. He was equally paralyzed by the fact that he didn't know which of the anything's would work out. - Pick a direction and start swimming. But you can't tell one way from the other, so you can't pick. You can't even tell if you're swimming toward something, so why would you use up all your energy going the wrong way? I guess all you can do is hope someone comes along in a boat or something."

If your feeling this way ^^^ this book will help!

"It is easy to feel overwhelmed by uncertainty, to want to lie low with the urban tribe, or our parents, until our brains just mature on their own and somehow suddenly know the sure answers to our lives. But that's not how the brain works. And that's not how life works. Besides, even if our brains could wait, love and work can't. The twenties are, indeed, the time to get busy. It's forward thinking for an uncertain age."

"Sam had it all backward. The way he saw it, he couldn't join the world until he felt like a man, but he wasn't going to feel like a man until he joined the world."

"Never again will we be so quick to learn new things. Never again will it be so easy to become the people we hope to be. The risk is that we may not act now."

 "It was like I had traded five years of partying or hanging out in coffee shops for five more years I could have had with my son if I'd grown up sooner."

Mocking Jay

So, trying to keep to my goal of reading at least one book a month I finally read the last in the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay. Oh my good heavens, what a waste of my time. I kept reading it, hoping that it would eventually get better, but it never did. I can honestly 100% say that was the all time worst book I have ever read. I am absolutely shocked that they are splitting it into two movies. How in the helk do they plan on doing that? I wanted to give myself some time between reading it and writing a blog post about it, but the fury I felt still lingers! Honestly I haven't really read anything since I finished it because I am scared of being so let down by yet another book! But I have started reading Bossypants by Tina Fey (which has been a little disappointing but I'm still fighting through it...)

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

My first issue with Mockingjay, since it had been awhile since I read the other ones, I had forgotten how gory these are. One of the reasons I hate them. I don't want my children to ever read these books. No one under 16 should read this series but especially this last book. As an aspiring author I think that is what the most difficult for me to stomach. That someone came up with such a gory and twisted story. And it only makes it worse that it's geared to teens who LOVE IT. Yikes.

I've found it hard to find a book with a main character I really love. I can't think of a book I have read since Harry Potter where I don't find the main character dreadfully whiny and annoying. Katniss is no exception and is even worse. In the previous book she was annoying, but at least she was strong willed and at least something somewhat good to look up to as a strong girl. But in this last book she just dissolves into a drug obsessed depressed mess, who has no control of her life, and doesn't seem to even care to have control. She literally gives up. 

The ending wasn't as depressing as people painted it out to be. It has a relatively happy ending - mostly - she ends up with Peeta and lives mostly happily ever after - begrudgingly becoming a mother.

The entire book really drags. I had to force myself to read it not just skip to the end and read the last few chapters, which I wish I would have done. They are really splitting it into two movies? How? Part one will be boring as hell. Don't waste your time reading this book. I really hope they take some serious liberties to make it more hopeful, and paint Katniss as a better example for girls to look up to.

Charlie St. Cloud

Introducing our second featured book for February - Charlie St. Cloud.

"In a snug New England fishing village, Charlie St. Cloud tends the lawns and monuments of an ancient cemetery where his younger brother, Sam, is buried. After surviving the car accident that claimed his brother's life, Charlie is graced with an extraordinary gift: He can see, talk to, and even play catch with Sam's spirit. Into this magical world comes Tess Carroll, a captivating woman training for a solo sailing trip around the globe. Fate steers her boat into a treacherous storm that propels her into Charlie's life. Their beautiful and uncommon connection leads to a race against time and a choice between death and life, between the past and the future, between holding on and letting go — and the discovery that miracles can happen if we simply open our hearts."

The Great Gatsby

"That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem."

Being that I am a huge fan of all Baz Luhrmann films I read this book in preparation of the soon to be released movie. It is a good story, a very quick read, but I'll admit I found it to be a rather sad story. I have a lot of friends who are big fans of the book feeling it's an amazing, classic love story, but I found it to be a little odd. But, glad to be able to check another classic off my "to read" list.     

Still very excited for the movie. I can see DiCaprio doing a very good job of playing Gatsby!

February - Book of the Month

For this month we wanted something romantic. I've had France on the brain, so here is our pick; Kissed In Paris by Juliette Sobanet;

"“You are in Paris, the City of Love. You must not be so controlled. Here, have another glass. I promise you, it will not hurt.”

When 29-year-old event planner Chloe Turner wakes up penniless and without a passport in the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris, she only has a few fleeting memories of Claude, the suave French man who convinced her to have that extra glass of wine before taking all of her possessions and slipping out the door. As the overly organized, go-to gal for her three drama queen younger sisters, her anxiety-ridden father, and her needy clients, Chloe is normally prepared for every disaster that comes her way. But with her wedding to her straight-laced, lawyer fiancé back in DC only days away and a French con-man on the loose with her engagement ring, this is one catastrophe she never could have planned for.

As Chloe tries to figure out a way home, she runs into an even bigger problem—the police are after her due to suspicious activity now tied to her bank account. Chloe's only hope at retrieving her passport and clearing her name lies in the hands of a rugged, undercover agent named Julien who has a few secrets of his own. As Chloe follows this mysterious, and—although she doesn't want to admit it—sexy French man on a wild chase through the sun-kissed countryside of France, she discovers a magical world she never knew existed and has to decide if the perfectly ordered life she’s built for herself back home is really what she wants after all."