Book Breakups - Week 5

"Book Breakups" is a weekly meme hosted by Pure Imagination. Have you ever stopped reading a book because it was so boring, you couldn't finish it or for whatever reason just stopped? This is what this meme's about.


One Book I've broken up with:


Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen


I broke up with this book, because, well...


I guess I was kinda too "young" at that time (I think I was 12 :S) to really understand this book. I had seen the movie (the one with Kiera Knightly!) and really loved it, and so I decided to read it. I managed to get through halfway, but then I stopped. I would really love to continue it though, now that I would understand it more and have "matured" in book reading. I just have to find time...






but anyway, here's a blurb (along with praise :P):


"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the "most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author's works," and Eudora Welty in the twentieth century described it as "irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."

"The wit of Jane Austen has for partner the perfection of her taste."
--Virginia Woolf


Well, that's one more breakup! Which book have you stood up?? Leave a link/comment!

WWW Wednesdays - Week 9

"WWW Wednesdays" is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

My Answers:

What are your currently reading?

I'm currently reading This Girl is Different by JJ Johnson (ARC) and Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. Loving both of them!

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished reading In Front of God and Everybody by KD McCrite (ARC). Hilariously funny! Review coming up soon.

What do you think you'll read next?

I think I'm either going to read Choker by Elizabeth Woods, Wither by Lauren Destefano, Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs or Memento Nora by Angie Smibert (ARC). WOW. Well, I have loads to pick from as you can see! Hmm...which one do you think I should read first?

Well those were my answers! What are you currently reading? Leave a link/comment!

Waiting on Wednesday – Week 11

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. It's to spotlight upcoming releases which I'm DYING to read!


A Book I Can't Wait for:


Supernaturally
by Kiersten White
Publication Date: August 30th, 2011


(from Goodreads)


A lot has changed in the six months since Evie escaped from the International Paranormal Containment Agency with her shape-shifter boyfriend, Lend. She finally has the blissfully normal life she’s always dreamed of, including:
1) A real live high school
2) A perfectly ordinary after-school job
3) Her very own locker (and by the way, rusted metal is every bit as awesome as she imagined)

But Evie’s not-so-normal past keeps creeping up on her...and things get pretty complicated when you factor in:
1) A centuries-old, seriously decaying vampire stalker
2) A crazy faerie ex-boyfriend who is the perpetual bearer of really bad news
3) A major battle brewing between the faerie courts where the prize in question happens to be...Evie herself.

So much for normal.


OMG, I still need to read the first book (Bought it recently!) and I'm sure I'll be able to read it before this one comes out :-) and I seriously also think that whoever designs the covers for these books deserves some sort of awesome award or something, cause this one is GORGEOUSSSS!! <3 it.
Well that's my answer. What are you "Waiting on" this week? Leave a link/comment!

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

When Melinda Sordino's friends discover she called the police to quiet a party, they ostracize her, turning her into an outcast -- even among kids she barely knows. But even worse than the harsh conformity of high-school cliques is a secret that you have to hide.


(Note: May Contain spoilers)


This book cannot be explained in plain simple English. There are no words to really describe how profound, amazing, darkly humorous and terrifying this book was. I finished this book in one reading and it so deserves (and I know on all my reviews I don't rate books, but...) 5/5. 


AH.
MA.
ZING.


Loved the solidarity of Melinda's character, of how emotions just played through over and over again, portraying her loneliness and her longing to be accepted by her old friends. Her relationship with her parents. The night of the party, and how she reacts to everyone around her who blamed her and her only for everything. It's all well-written and details are perfect. Every thought of Melinda's can be relayed over and over again, to be fixed together in one terrifying jigsaw puzzle of what keeps her silent.


It was really sad though, because I knew what was going happen. I didn't intentionally find out of course, but me searching up the movie on Wikipedia (yes, okay. I use it.) only to find out what's her secret in the intro paragraph of the page? Not. Cool. So yes, maybe it was a bit spoiled for me and I think it would have hit me much harder than it did if I didn't know what her secret was. But I loved how when they do get to that part, they don't put it into much detail. It's around a chapter I think, and not graphic as I thought it would be.


Melinda is a character I cannot find one other fictional person I could relate her to. She's original and so real. I love Laurie Halse Anderson's books because she makes her character's personalities real and not very stereo-typical. I also love how through all the sadness that Melinda feels, she also portrays her with humor, with her new friend, her relationship with her parents (love it when she compares her Mom to Cruella de Vil and her Dad to Alfred Hitchcock...I think). It isn't necessarily very funny humor. Just dark and pretty sad, but humor otherwise.


*SPOILER ALERT: This one is MAJOR so DO NOT READ unless a) You don't mind the story being spoilt for you, or b) You've already read it.*


The ending I loved. Everything builds up and it's the point where you are screaming your heart out for Melinda, cheering her on against Andy when he corners her in that room and starts to attack. I was like nearly jumping out of my chair and thinking "Ohmygod, ohmygod, Scream for HELP Melinda, SCREAMM!!!" and then of course, I'm not going to tell you what happens, because I'm evil like that.


*SPOILER OVER!*


Overall, Laurie Halse Anderson has written a deep, tragical piece of writing which is pretty terrifying. As Melinda faces her schoolmates, teachers, parents, and herself, she teaches a lesson that everyone wants be heard and we just need to hear them out. A very thoughtfully written out book, I would really recommend those who loved Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (Amazon❘Goodreads) and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Review❘Amazon❘Goodreads) because this book is so heavily based on problems teens face today. Loved it!

Recommended to: 14+
Source: Borrowed from Library
Amazon❘Goodreads