Musing Mondays (Oct.3)

Musing Mondays is hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. This weeks MM ask's: What are you most excited about reading, right now? (can be a book you’re currently enjoying, or a book that’s yet to be published, etc.)

Well I'm not excited about any books coming out, in fact I'm not entirely sure what's even being published these days. I started a new job, as a montessori pre-school assistant. It takes up a lot of my time. So I think honestly the most exciting thing about reading right now is the fact that I'm actually doing it.

WWW Wednesday (Sept. 7)

WWW Wednesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

What are you currently reading? I am deciding between Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis or Across the Universe by Beth Revis. The latter is kind of depressing me so I'll probably end up reading Kat. I should finish my review books but I'm not in the mood for zombies.

What did you recently finish reading? Miss Peregrine *insert rest of title here* by Ransom Rigg and Solid by Shelley Workinger, both have been reviewed as you can see below.

What do you think you'll read next? After the two I've been deciding on? Well I have two non-zombie review books on my nook I should get to. Across Eternity by Aris Whittier and No Place Like Holmes by Jason Lethcoe.

Solid: A Book Review

Author: Shelley Workinger*

Genre: Sci-fi..?

Reading Level: ages 12 and up

Summary:Teens who discover they were secretly genetically altered before birth are brought together at a classified site where they forge new friendships, find love, develop "super-abilities," and even unearth a conspiracy.

My Review: I didn't start reading this book with any expectations. I'm not a character driven book kind of girl. Not that I like lifeless, do nothing, characters with no personality. I don't think anybody does... at least they shouldn't.

I thought I'd try out of my comfort zone for once though. The author was kind enough to send me a copy. Actually two copies. The first one got lost in the mail.

It's not a terrible novel. It's not very good either. It needs more work, more polish, not just in the plot (after all I was already warned about that) but in the characters. They weren't strong enough to hold the book together. I didn't much like Clio. She was far to inconsistent emotionally. She's supposed to be all sarcastic, but I guess I just didn't get this very much, because she kept telling me she was being sarcastic. I never actually read her being sarcastic.

The relationships all happened too fast. I didn't understand why both Clio and Bliss disliked Miranda so much, I mean I felt like they were the mean judgmental girls, not her. She was just being herself, stating her own opinions and I felt they were being overly self righteous. I don't even understand what Garret's point was other than to be the annoying goofy one. Then there's the love interest, her and Jake just met, she's already crushing cause he's just that perfect, but whatever that's okay, crushes happen...fast. But then she freaks out 'cause he didn't kiss her at a dance (one of the most confusing bits in the novel as it's their second interaction) then she's saying how much she loves him, and other such things. I like'd Colonel Clark. He was pretty cool, I would've liked his relationship with Clio explored. He so obviously felt fatherly toward her. That was sweet.

The little of the plot that was there, kept the novel interesting. It was a cliched, and over too fast, but I appreciated its existence. I think Shelley Workinger has potential, she just needs to work on developing her characters more, letting them slowly grow and form believably solid relationships...oh gawd I didn't mean that pun. -_-;

Content: just some kissing and minor violence, really tame stuff

Rating: 2 and a half stars out of 5

Recommend: Sure, try it out for yourself. There's also a sequel that can be found here.

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children: A Book Review

Author: Ransom Riggs

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography,Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was a well written, and overall interesting novel, I felt some words were overused but I can overlook this little offense.

Some of the characters were interesting, and I enjoyed the "peculiar" aspects of certain characters that I can't give away as they are plot points.

I however was not particularly fond of the novel as a whole. I felt the middle was dragging, so many things I found unnecessary I was forced to read through as I impatiently waited for the real important bits of the book to come up, and the relationships between the characters felt rushed and forced.

Then there's the bad guys. They were built up to be quite fearsome, but I only saw flashes of them in the beginning of the novel and then at the end, and I wasn't particularly scared of them, although my lady like constitution was quite upset over an episode involving them and a pack of innocent sheep.

Unfortunately for me many little plot twists were rather predictable. I wasn't very shocked when certain "reveals" came up as I saw them coming all along and I feel that the observant reader would have the same experience. In the end the novel just left me disappointed.

Content: lots of language, and violence

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Recommend: People who like quirky fantasies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: A book review

Author: Seth Grahame-Smith

Genre: Twisted classic..?

Summary: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.

My Review: Well I don't agree with that last part. P&P has never had trouble drawing in an audience and I don't think it's going to stop nowadays. Either way P&P&Z was made, and the big question is this: has it ruined a masterpiece of literature or has it increased it's audience and added something more. I'd have to say in regards to question number one: no, no it hasn't. I mean it's so unbelievably camp and overly grotesque you're too busy laughing at the utter ridiculousness of it all that there's no room to get mad at it being in P&P. Has it increased it's audience...I'm not sure really I'll have to look that up. Has it added anything. Oh definitely not. It's far to silly to seems like some sort of social commentary. It's not a particularly clever parody in my opinion. It's just sorta...there, and it sparked a creation of other such there reboots of classic novels like "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" "Vampire Little Women" and "Alice in Zombieland."

I think it could have benefited from being more "zombie" and less "Pride and Prejudice" particularly near the end. Some more drastic changes would've been nice as well, and this incarnation of Elizabeth seemed widely schizophrenic, because one minute she was the wild zombie slayer for the added text bits, and then she was back to original text Elizabeth who has a proper emotional breakdown over Lydia's disappearance. I mean the breakdown is understandable in the original, it just seems outta place with this new Elizabeth. Again I think it would have been more enjoyable completely re-written instead of being mostly Austen with Zombies thrown in.

Content: Some rawther inappropriate innuendo's that seemed out of place and uncalled for.

-_-; I am not amused. Violence, gore, gross stuff. Zombies for crying out loud.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Recommend: For people who have ever read Austen and thought "it could be more zombified". ^_^

Booking Through Thursday: Anticipation

Today's Booking Through Thursday ask's: What’s the last book you were really EXCITED to read?

And, were you excited about it in advance? Or did the excitement bloom while you were reading it?

Are there any books you’re excited about right NOW?

Probably My Unfair Godmother, because I didn't even know My Fair Godmother had a sequel coming out. So I was pleasantly surprised. Advanced books? I dunno I think it's best for me not to get excited in advance 'cause when I do by the time I get around to reading them, the bloom has worn off, and I get bored. Right now there are currently no books that are making me run to the bookstore...or even online. Shame really.

Right Side Talking: A Book Review

Author: Bonnie Rozanski
Reading Level: Ages 12 and up
Summary: Imagine that you are a young girl with intractable epilepsy. As a last resort you submit to an operation to sever the connection between the two sides of your brain. Though the operation successfully reduces your seizures, you are left forever with two separate minds: left and right, each unaware of the other.

Imagine further that while recovering in the hospital, you witness a murder. Your dominant left brain cannot recognize unfamiliar faces, and is, therefore, unable to identify the killer. Your right brain can, but is unable to speak. Gradually, painstakingly, the right learns to spell out its thoughts in scrabble letters. At long last, on a table in a hospital lab, you describe the person who committed the crime. Too bad the killer is reading that very same message.….

Right Side Talking is a thriller that will grip the reader from its opening surgery scene to its dramatic courtroom climax. Its cast of characters: a 15-year-old epileptic; a brilliant surgeon; an unlicensed, resentful doctor from abroad who must work as an orderly; a grumpy, relentless detective, and a feisty psychologist Finally, most fascinating of all, there is the human mind itself.

My Review: I started this book online, but was finally given a nook and able to finish it without straining my eyes. :D Yay~! Anyway to get down to business, Right Side Talking was well researched, the author really new what she was talking about in regards to the intricacies of epilepsy, surgery, and the resulting research into how a person functions after the connection to both sides of their brain has been severed. The plot does start out slow because of this, but it picks up more near the middle. The writing was easy to read, and understandable, but at times came off slightly unemotional and rushed. I'm not sure I fully understood the main character, or many of the side characters outside of the murderer oddly enough. I had a surprising amount of compassion for the murderer although what he did made me feel ill, he was so obviously unwell due to all sorts of hardships in life it made me also feel quite sad for him. Everything leading up to the ending was well written and quite intense so I was very enthralled. All in all a pleasant read.

Content: Violence, some language

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Recommend: If you are interested in medical drama's, howcatchem's, and court drama's.