Musing Mondays (May 2)

Musing Mondays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. This week’s musing asks…

Do you care if the book’s storyline is unrealistic? Will you keep reading, or will you set the book aside?

So like what sort of unrealistic are you talking about? Like random spy guys popping out of a characters closet unrealistic, or Twilight unrealistic? :P Personally I'm a fan of randomness, some of my favorite tv shows and movies make no sense, so it never bothered me in books. Well actually if it's supposed to be a "serious" book then if the plot, particularly in mysteries, does not have a plausible solution at the end and uses my old nemesis the Dues Ex Machina than I get really mad and usually throw the book. If it's a movie I throw something at the screen. :P

Mr. Chartwell: A Book Review

Genre: Dramedy (Drama and Comedy)

Reading Level: 13 and up

Summary: July 1964. Chartwell House, Kent: Winston Churchill wakes at dawn. There’s a dark, mute “presence” in the room that focuses on him with rapt concentration.

It’s Mr. Chartwell.

Soon after, in London, Esther Hammerhans, a librarian at the House of Commons, goes to answer the door to her new lodger. Through the glass she sees a vast silhouette the size of a mattress.

It’s Mr. Chartwell.

Charismatic, dangerously seductive, Mr. Chartwell unites the eminent statesman at the end of his career and the vulnerable young woman. But can they withstand Mr. Chartwell’s strange, powerful charms and his stranglehold on their lives? Can they even explain who or what he is and why he has come to visit?

In this utterly original, moving, funny, and exuberant novel, Rebecca Hunt explores how two unlikely lives collide as Mr. Chartwell’s motives are revealed to be far darker and deeper than they at first seem.

My Review: I had a really interesting time reading this novel. It was, in few words, simply amazing on so many levels. It was a compelling and unique look at depression and it affects on humans. You the reader, get to experience this in a very corporeal way, for depression in this book takes on the form of a disgusting yet disturbingly alluring black dog. He is known as Mr. Chartwell, or less formerly Black Pat. He depresses people, both literally and figuratively, his two victim being the long suffering Winston Churchill and a woman named Esther Hammerhans who has terrible dark feelings brought on by a tragedy she is having trouble dealing with.

The two characters in this story allow us to view many of the different ways people can deal with depression. In Winston there is the man, pulled down by this darkness that has plagued his family for generation, but fighting his hardest to never give into it. Then there is Esther, unsure as to what exactly these new feelings are. Rebecca Hunt detailed and emotional writing allows you to really get into the head of each and every single character not just the main ones, but also their friends and lovers, and even the complex Black Pat, that provides a closeness and attachment I have not had the pleasure of enjoying in a book in quite some time.

Rebecca's writing flows effortlessly from fantastical and witty farce, to a deep, sad, and illuminating commentary that is not to be missed.

Content: Nothing that I can remember :P

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Recommend: To those who enjoy unique and compelling novels that make you think as well as they entertain you.

Gone on Holiday

Well not a vacation, but I have a holiday coming up which will make me quite inactive. Pesach, or Passover, is a Jewish holiday celebrating their Exodus from Egypt where they were slaves. You can watch all sorts of movies about it, like The Ten Commandments or a musical cartoon I'm particularly fond of The Prince of Egypt. :D Don't worry though, May is coming up, and since it's my birthday month I'm planning a giveaway I hope you will all like, and I will be putting up reviews for two books I finished reading Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg and Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt. Until then I hope you all have a wonderful week full of good books, and good friends. :D

Musing Mondays (April 4th)

Musing Mondays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. This week’s musing asks… When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?

I wasn't teased, but I was known for being a bookworm. Practically everyone knew me as that girl who read far too much, and I usually carried around a book with me (I still do) no matter where I was going, and sometimes I got a "Do you have to have a book all the time." I was once teased for reading the dictionary. It didn't make me feel bad though. In fact it made me feel quite smart. I knew all these words my friends didn't. :P

A Super Giveaway at the Blog of Beth Revis~!

Beth Revis is hosting a giveaway for Five signed copies of these fabulous books (along with the reasons why you will love them):

• THE ETERNAL ONES by Kirsten Miller is a fast-paced, adventurious love story that involves reincarnation, secret societies, and fire.
• THE REPLACEMENT by Brenna Yovanoff is a hauntingly beautiful book that scares the pants off me.
• NIGHTSHADE by Andrea Cremer is not about werewolves--it's about true wolves that can shapeshift into people written by a brilliant scholar who incorporate history into the tale.
• MATCHED by Allie Condie shows us that love can break through any barrier, and the most important thing is to not go gently...
• ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is the book that I wrote and I would really like it if you liked it. Also I think you're pretty and want to be friends with you.

To enter the giveaway just head on over to Beth Revis's beautiful blog~! She's set up a beautiful html picture that is unfortunately far to big for my format, but that you should look at anyway. :D

Anna and the French Kiss: A Book Review

Genre: Hard core lovey dovey romance :P

Reading Level: 17 and up

Summary: Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

My Review: Hmmmm, that blurb doesn't sound amazingly interesting does it? I got this book from the library 'cause of all the great reviews I read about it. I was really excited to read it. I read it in one night. Because it was really really intense for me. Wow Stephenie Perkins what a debut. Doesn't the cover look like the book will be all cutesy and boy meets girl and they have troubles that aren't to weird and then get together? It was more like girl meets boyand a lot of serious jujumugumbo goes down that involves they're friends and families and will keep you up all night going "What's gonna happen gaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh~!" seriously it was another exhausting book. So I guess not what I expected, but in a good way.

I can't remember too much that singled Anna out as a unique heroine, she was mostly just average and so was St. Claire (to me at least, some other reviewers I've read call him swoon-worthy) but their problems were a-plenty and that's what kept my lamp burning. I'd say the real heart of this story is Anna and St. Claire's growing friendship. Hey let's face it, teenager's are sometimes fickle, they go out with one person and flirt with another. At least that's what I'm getting from books and TV show's these days. I think their trying to express that teenagers are still growing, learning and developing, so they don always know what they want, or how to handle situations even though their indecisiveness is terribly annoying for a reader, particularly this one :P. So Anna develops a crush on St. Claire right away, that happens sometimes, but it does deepen and mature as the story progresses and for that I give Perkin's two thumbs up. :D I also get the same from St. Claire, he's a boy with a lot of daddy issue's and mommy issue's and "I don't want things to change" issue's which hold him back for almost 300 something pages. I Loved the side characters, Anna's group of friends at her Paris school were nicely fleshed out but they didn't hog the spotlight, and like Anna and St. Claire, they also made a lot of stupid mistakes, had fights, and made up. There were some silly "Did she mean to write that?" moments in the book (particularly during a scene where St. Claire is showing our heroine around Paris, it's one of those "welcome to -insert name of place-" scene's that when not written properly are really clunky sounding) but other than that very solidly and consistently written. This is probably the first hard core romance I've read without the added paranormal affect, and it was a very interesting experience. I'm just not sure if I want to repeat it or not.

Content: lots of sexual references and harsh language, this one's definitely not for the kiddies.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5

Recommend: Yes for romance fans, and people who like reading about characters feelings for 372 pages (I usually don't) the rest of your should go read something else.

Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duo's~! (Mar. 8)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish~! This week's topic: DYNAMIC DOU'S~! This is gonna be a fun one. :D

1. Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man: My long time readers will know my love for these two, so I won't go on and on about them except that they are the epitome of a perfect couple for me.

2. Harold the dog and Chester the cat from Bunnicula: Ahh a childhood favorite. I love the dynamic of this unique friendship. Chester is a tightly wound, imaginative, and overly well read cat who causes a bunch of trouble because he thinks an innocent bunny is the spawn of satan. :P Harold is a dog with literary talent (how does he type?) who goes with the flow, but stands up to his manic friend when he feels he is going over the edge. Despite their differences these two are close friends and help each other out when needed.

3. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events: Okay so this is a terrific trio but...ones only a little baby (albeit with super sharp teeth) so can't I just squish her in there without anyone noticing? :P These three work well together because they each have a unique talent (Violet's an inventor, Klaus has photographic memory, and Sunny...bites) that is all their own and often comes in handy because they are often pursued by a psychotic man named Count Olaf.

4. Richard "Rick" Castle and Detective Katherine "Kate" Beckett from Castle: This is technically cheating since it's a tv show but these two have bookish counterparts with really stupid names so...Castle is a writer, and legal stalker who follows Kate around while she solves crime and then writes stories about them. He's fun loving, troublesome, yet caring, and she's sensible, fiery, and trying to solve the murder of her mother. Together they exchange witty banter, deny their feelings, and are the closest pair I've found to a modern Nick and Nora Charles. (before they were married :P)

5. Jessica and Lucius Vladescu from Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side: Sequel coming up Yay~! Jessica is an everyday girl, who unfortunately one day meets a vampire claiming her for his bride. She is not digging it. At all. :P But through a comedy filled book with bits of drama Jessica learns to love her vampire beau and through his relationship with her he is able to save himself from his darker um dark side. :P

6. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford from The Secret Adversary and subsequent sequels: Another snappy, crime solving duo, created by Agatha Christie, Tommy and Tuppence have tons of charm and tons of fun. They are bright young jazz things down on their luck, so the natural thing to do is obviously advertise in the newspaper as adventurers. Boy am I glad they did.

7. Skulduggery Pleasent and Valkyrie "Stephenie Edgley" Cain from Skulduggery Pleasent and its sequels: The first book in the Skulduggery Pleasent series is a knockout children's horror story. I love it to bits. Mostly because of the wise cracking demon killing duo of Skulduggery and his wizard apprentice Stephenie or as she likes to be called Valkyrie Cain.

8. Bella Kirkwood and Luke Sullivan from The Charmed Life series: I wasn't sure if I would like this series when I first started but I was pleasantly surprised by it. It was funny, and much to my surprise had a mystery. But I also liked the slowly growing relationship between Bella and her school newspaper Editor Luke.

9. Encyclopedia Brown and Sally Kimball from the Encyclopedia Brown Mystery series: The smartest boy in town is Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown and his partner is the equally smart and pretty Sally Kimball. These two worked well off each other and I remember just being completely in awe of them when I was little.

10. Jim Qwilleran and Koko from the Cat Who...series: A bristly crime reporter with an epic mustache and a high class cat who helps him solve mysteries. Need I say more. Well maybe for people who don't like cats but I do, so... :P

So that's it for me *whew* that was surprisingly hard, but I did it. So what are your favorite duo's?