Review: Day 21 by Cass Morgan

This is one of those rare cases where I’d say the TV show of this two-part novel is better than the book; that being said, it means that the book was boring, simple, and didn’t keep my attention (I only picked it up because I felt obligated to, as a fan of the show).

Day 21 by Kass Morgan is a simple book with a simple plot. There is nothing special about it, it simply takes you through a bit of their lives, much like the show “Survivor” does. We know they are stranded, we know they are dying; that much is not only expected but is written out anyway. The show had was more intense than the book was (something that I don’t particularly like saying), yet again, another surprise to me. Perhaps my use of the word “surprise” is misused here. Surprise is something you experience that makes you stop and try to get your bearings before going on in life. These teens just went through life.

For the life of me I cannot remember the first The 100 book I read long ago. This means that either it was terrible, was just blah, or was nothing special (perhaps they are all true?). I work at a library and in order to start a conversation with the woman looking at the book, I recommended it. Fortunately, she ignored my recommendation and did not pick up this book. Bullet dodged right there. To that patron: I apologise for suggesting you read a mediocre book. Next time I’ll have you pick up Asylum or Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
(Click on the above image of the book to be directed to the Amazon product page. You can buy it, but I'd suggest that you borrow it from the library first.)

The Three "Ws" of Wednesday

• What are you currently reading?

I am currently reading A Field Guide to Lucid Dreams: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics in hopes that I will be able to harness the creativity of my dreams to further my writing or to just have a good time (who doesn't want to be able to fly?)
 • What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished reading The Handmaid's Tale. It was a dystopian novel written in the 70s about a world (much like our own) where women were oppressed by men and their only value was being an incubator for a fetus a man forces on the women.



• What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm currently also reading The Enemy, a YA zombie novel about a group of kids that fight to survive zombies and each other. I'm going to say that this is the "next" book I'll read because I'm taking a short break from it to finish Lucid Dreams.

Booking Through Thursday-- Authors You Know

This week's question from "Booking Through Thursday" is:

If someone you know has just published a book—do you feel obliged to buy a copy? Even if it’s not the kind of book you’d normally read?

I don't feel obligated to purchase it but I do feel obligated to offer myself up as a reviewer. The few author's I know write ebooks and I only, for the most part prefer to buy books in hard copy. It’s not only the wrong format for me, I also can’t spend as much money as I want to on books. And, believe me, the only thing I want to do is spend money on books. I have to reign it in sometime. It’s hard, though. I feel that if I know them I can’t say no to being a reviewer, even if I don’t want to, because giving a bad review is hard, especially when you know the author.

Answering this review has made me reconsider reviewing books for authors that I know. It’s too hard to make my review unbiased and when I feel obligated to do something I feel like I have to do it asap, which can be stressful, considering I’m a full time student with a job. I will, however, keep editing their books (for monies).

 

Review of Horrorstor

What a lovely--OH SWEET BABY JESUS 

The story starts out from the POV of Sam, an employee at a wanna-be Ikea. She’s late and she worries about being fired. That's how the book starts out. I didn’t feel like I got to know her much at all in the beginning. It was like Grady Hendrix threw a main character at me and expected me to know her, to love her. The ending was cliche. I knew what was going to happen. The mean guy turns around and becomes a nice guy. That’s until the latter part of the book when he reverts back to his old self. Duh. Nothing special about it. Perhaps the only part that I didn’t see coming was a death.

The cool thing about this book is how it’s setup like an Ikea catalog. And I mean just like an IKEA catalog. The front of the book shows furniture with price tags, a living room inside of a giant store. Oh yeah, and a demonic face with no mouth and wide eyes trying to get through the picture frame of the otherwise ordinary Ikea catalog cover.The back, though. The back is really cool. It shows the same scene but with everything destroyed by whatever force was taking over at night. There you go, that’s the good part about the book. It’s layout and it’s cover.

Like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Asylum it’s a freaky story. It’s massively weird in most places and scary (and then boring) in others.

Would I recommend that you purchase this book? No. I wouldn’t. I’d recommend that you go to a bookstore and look at the cover and maybe open it to see just how much like an Ikea catalog it is. Quite impressive, though I won’t tell you that the story is.

"Waiting on" Wednesday-- Waistcoats and Weaponry

I haven't read Gail Carriger's second book in the Finishing School series but I'm excited for the third to be realesed. This way I can review the first, read the second, and hop right on to the third (no waiting period, which I hate). The book is titled Waistcoats and Weaponry.

I absolutely LOVED her Souless series, I'm thrilled that she produced a young adult series as well.

Here's the first (w/ links to amazon):


And the second:


And the highly anticipated third:

 

Top Ten Tuesday-- New Series I Want to Start

Can you find a theme? What series do you want to start?

First Paragraph, First Sentence of The 100: Day 21

No one wanted to stand near the grave. Although four of their own were already buried in the makeshift cemetery, the rest of the 100 were disturbed by the idea of lowering a body into the ground.

What do you think? 

Would you keep reading?

I'm Back! And Teen Reading Week

Hello all, I'm back! Went through a few big life changes but now things have calmed down. I wanted to share with you Teen Reading Week's top ten YA book:

How cool is that? I've read a couple but some I've never heard of. I made a shelf on my Goodreads account of these ten books. Go look!

I'm now the library assistant for the teen lounge so I'm constantly around teen books. SO MANY TO READ. If you haven't already, become a friend of mine on Goodreads and/or follow me on Twitter for updates (also on the right). You know what you'll get updates on? That's right, books!

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Update on Blog Status

Hello All,
I apologize for not updating my blog regularly. My grandma is very ill and she's moving to hospice care next week, so my life has been a bit stressful. Hopefully I'll be able to pick back up again when things settle down but in the meantime she's my priority. And congrats to the winner of the Star Wars giveaway! Yvonne J won :)
Best,
Angie

Top Ten Tuesday-- Popular Books I've Read and You Should Too!

Harry Potter and the EVERYTHING- No book series I've ever read can compare to Harry Potter. I grew up with those stories and those characters, they'll always have a special place on my (virtual) bookcase.

The Hunger Games-- Katniss Everdeen is the young woman I want to be. I'd like to think I'd volunteer for my sister...

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children-- My review says it all.

The Walking Dead-- The comics are actually better than the show, if that's possible. So much more gore on those pages than you're allowed to show on TV.

The Secret-- I've been told that this book gives people misinformation and false hope but what I liked about it was that it gave me a sense that I have more control over my life than I've been led to believe. If it makes you feel good, why not read it?

Rot & Ruin-- a zombie book that follows a young man and his friends on a journey through the zombie infested America that they refer to as "the rot and ruin." What begins as a simple journey leads into a multiple book series full of zombies, death, and love.

Lean In-- Not half bad. It provides great information for women in business, sure, and the author brings up some pretty important points but the problem is that it really only applies to young, white, middle-class women.

Twilight-- Worst. Decision. Ever. The only reason I'm providing a link to buy this book is because I will get a small percentage of the sale. If you buy it, I get to say "I told you so..."

The Vagina Monologues-- Best. Decision. Ever. Read Eve Ensler's books. Any and all of them. It puts you in the mind of female victims and brings attention to the rape culture that we've come to accept as the norm.

The Sociopath Next Door-- I was inspired to read this book after re-watching Dexter (the lovable serial-killer) and reading the books. 1 in 25 people

Tell me in the comments if you prefer print books or ebooks! I'm torn, I like them both ^-^

Click on the links to buy these books. If I like them, you'll like them. Questions about these books? Shoot me an email at argalliano7@gmail.com

Star Wars Trilogy Giveaway!

I'm giving away the William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy for the Midsummer's Eve Giveaway hop.  The books are: Verily, a New Hope; The Empire Striketh Back; and, to be released next month, The Jedi Doth Return. After entering my giveaway, scroll down and enter some other bloggers giveaways. And, good news, you can come back to enter again tomorrow!

The books were sent to me in exchange for an honest review by Quirk Books. Shakespeare isn't my thing but that's not to say he isn't yours! The first two books were delicately read by me and the third one came straight from the publisher. Thanks, Quirk!

For those of you who do not win (sadly, there can only be one winner) click on the links above to buy the books from Amazon (buying through those links gives me monies, too).
Enter here for William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy Giveaway

Top Ten Books On My Summer TBR list

I had a blast looking through my Goodreads "to-read" list for this Top Ten Tuesday! Below are ten books that I can't wait to read this summer, though I know I won't get to all of them (because I'm a genius and have the fourth and fifth books in the series).

-The Inner Temple of Witchcraft--A book I'm looking forward to. I just got a call from Books Inc that my order came in!


-Lesbianism Made Easy--A hilarious book I found at a second-hand bookstore, just in time for me to start dating.

-The Dead Run--a book I found at the library I work. Zombies. That's all that needs to be said.



-Quantum Creativity: Think Quantum, Be Creative--I found this book at a local metaphysical bookstore and requested it from a publisher. This is one of those books that is either going to inspire me or be so boring I wish I didn't have to read it.


-Ex-heroes--I won the fourth book in this series in a giveaway. Because I'm a genius I didn't realize it was later on in the series so it's going to be a while before I work my way to this book by Peter Clines.

-Fiddlehead--Like the book above, I made a mistake when I requested it from Tor. I thought it was the second book in the series by Cherie Priest when it was actually the fifth. So really, I should have put down "Dreadnought" (#2 in The Clockwork Century).

-Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book--Small, quick picture book full of grumpy cat and his grumpy memes. This is one of those books I'll check out from the library and wish I had purchased instead. Of course, by the time I realize I should have bought it I'll have already read it and be on the next book I am going to read. 

-Crafting Magick with Pen and Ink: Learn to Write Stories, Spells and Other Magickal Works--Another book that I want to read for this site, something I don't think I'm likely to see in other book review blogs. It's my goal to run a blog that can expose people to books they wouldn't ordinarily consider. 

-Sex at Dawn--I found this when I visited the local Good Vibrations shop (they sell books, too!). It's a non-fiction book about sex and relationships.

-Candle Magic by Cooper, Phillip-- Sometimes it's nice to think that we have a bit more control over our lives than we thought we did before becoming exposed to things like magick. From what little exposure I have to candle magic I have gotten a sense of fulfillment; the feeling that I did all that I could for something to go well. 

TTT: Top Ten Books I've Read this Year

The first book on this list has got to be Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

#2 is 50 Shades of Kink (oh my gosh, I just wrote "Grey" instead of "Kink"). I'm a sucker for self-help and sex-positive information and a fangirl of Tristan Taormino, a famous sex educator.

Now these books are in no particular order.

#3: Opening up, a book on non-monogamy. It explains the different types of relationships and the back is stock-full of resources, which is a huge plus. Honestly, it's better than The Ethical Slut.

#4 is a book I'm currently reading: Tarot for Life. I'm slowly working my way through it, pulling out my own Tarot cards as each one is analyzed.

#5 is Diary of a Submissive. It's exactly how it sounds. A memoir of a woman who is a sub.

#6 is Hollow City, the second book in Miss Peregrine's Home series. Less creepy than the first but still as catching.

#7 The 100, the book behind my favorite TV show of the summer. I was so happy to learn that it was first a book. Books can go more in depth with characters in ways the screen cannot.

#8 Joe Ledger: Special Ops is part of the Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Maberry who wrote the zombie series, Rot and Ruin (I actually used that book in my thesis on zombie literature). This book is a collection of short stories from the same universe, just much earlier than Rot and Ruin.

#9 Slave Girls. I decided not to review erotica on this blog to keep it family friendly but I can't not name this book (I'll compromise by naming it but not reviewing it). It's a BDSM erotica, tales of the submissives.

#10 Lean in: For Graduates. I have mixed feelings about this book. My review of it will be up soon so you'll find out why. (Here's a hint: white privilege.)

Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Hollow City is the second book in the series of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and takes place the same night as the first book ended. Actually, the whole book took place in a matter of 3-4 days which was pretty cool, considering this book is almost 400 pages. And, unlike the majority of student essays, there was no "fluff" involved to make this book as long as it was.

In Hollow City Jacob and the children travel to London by boat on a mission to save Miss Peregrine's life, where she is trapped in bird form and could revert to a wild animal (think of the movie, Brave). The end is shocking. Just... shocking. I did not expect that at all and the ending changed the book for me, even though I'd already read it. But enough of near-spoilers, I digress (or do I, considering that the topic is still on the book and this is my book review?).

The creepiness level was definitely toned down in this book. Or maybe I just got used to feeling horrified at the thought of a soul-eating monster. Both are quite possible. But even though I was less freaked out from reading this book that doesn't mean it was any less good. It was wonderful, actually. I had a hard time tearing myself away from the book to go to work and I would stay up late reading it. I relived a moment from my childhood when I realized that I felt like this book was my friend, like how I feel about the Harry Potter series. And let me tell you, that's an awesome feeling to have. (However, I cannot say that this book was as good as Harry Potter.)

Seriously, this series could easily go on for another few books, we're that far away from a resolution. But now, after the high of reading it has gone down, I'm excited for the next few books! The character  development of the main character was quite apparent in how he treated the other children. He understood that the children's (if you can call them children) lives were in his hands. He stepped up and became the hero his grandfather was. It was incredible to watch his grandfathers stories turn into reality in the first book and then later become Jacob's.

Of course, as in every young adult novel (or so it seems) there is a love interest. It just so happens that the woman he falls in love with is a good 70 years older than him. But unlike a lot of YA novels, this love story was not the main dish and it wasn't sloppy, drunk love where they can't be separated.  I would absolutely recommend this book to any reader that isn't afraid of being, well, frightened. Riggs is a fabulous author with a wild imagination that thrilled me through both books and, I'm sure, will do yet again in the third installment of his series.

Tarot and the Tree of Life: Finding Everyday Wisdom in the Minor Arcana by Isabel Kliegman

There is nothing special about this book. Usually you can pick out something that makes a book unique but this book is the same as any other book about Tarot. For starters, it goes through each card one-by-one. Not terrible, but not at all enrapturing. Especially considering that almost every beginning of each description of minor arcana starts with "we move next to..." I can only take so much of the same transition before it no longer counts as one.

The book is about Kabbala and the "Tree of Life." What turned me off to this book, among a host of other things, was that the author kept bringing up Christianity. I don't want my cards to have anything to do with that Christianity. We get enough of that religion in politics and women's rights, I don't want it brought into my reading. Kliegman goes through each card individually, analyzing the pictures, making connections that I otherwise may not have made. However, my deck of cards is different than hers so it wasn't relevant to me. I tried to follow along with my cards but the similarities were too obscure.

In one section, Kliegman is downright sexist. She begins the sentence as "Not to be sexist..." Having to start a sentence with that prelude pretty much guarantees that the next thing she says will be sexist. I could not finish this book. I made it about halfway through, ending with the suite of Cups. It was not engaging, it was not interesting, nothing in it was new. All the information went in one ear and out the other and after having put it off time and time again I realized that I just needed to end it
.

But just because this was a boring, mundane book that did not have anything new to say did not mean it was a bad book. I think it's safe to say that I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to books. I've read so many wonderful ones that books that are not up to my standards receive very low marks. Perhaps someone with a longer attention span could benefit from this book. Someone who is a devout Christian would gather wonderful things from this book. I will say that it was refreshing to read a book on Tarot that didn't focus on the Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana are often neglected and this book gives them the attention they deserve.

Thank you, Quest Books, for sending this book to me in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.  

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Iam Doescher

I've been putting off this review. I was so bored, I was distracted, I was doing everything but reading. Quite frankly, only Shakespeare could make Star Wars boring. It's time that I put the book down and say, "Enough. I can't take anymore of this!"  All books are special, some just appeal more to one person than the other. But here's the deal: I just can't get through this book without some discomfort, not after having just gone through a semester of Shakespeare.

I requested this book from Quirk who kindly gave me a copy in exchange for an honest review and I assure you, this review is honest. I was in a Shakespeare English class that I found incredibly boring so when I saw this book I thought, Hey, maybe Shakespeare can be fun after all! Well, he can't be fun and no matter the content, he's not. I gambled when I requested this book. I try to only request books I think I'll enjoy and I really thought I would enjoy this. I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was in elementary school, watching movie after movie after movie every snow day we had in Washington.

I loved a few things, though. For starters, this book is written in Shakespeare's traditional iambic pentameter which means it has one stressed syllable and another unstressed (my English major self was so happy about this). The author truly mimics Shakespeare's style down to the syllable. And this:

Obi Wan: "--Nay, thou dost/ Not need to see his papers."
Trooper 4: "Nay, we do/ Not need to see his papers."
Obi Wan: "--True it is,/ That these are not the droids for which thou search'st."

That is just so awesome. So, I appreciated bits of the book. It was actually a really well-written book by a very competent author, it just wasn't the right book for me.

Shakespeare still isn't my guy but I assure you, if you are a fan of Shakespeare and Star Wars you will just die with happiness. This book delivers exactly what the title promises and it does so beautifully. The author took a cult classic and paired it with the style of a literary genius and made Star Wars artsy. Kudos to Quirk for publishing this and Ian Doescher for writing a new (or would it be old?) piece of literature bound (ha ha) to become a classic itself. It just wasn't the right fit for me.

Check out my review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, another book by Quirk which I absolutely loved!

And if Shakespeare is up your alley, you can pick it up on Amazon through this link

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

So, the part of me that is almost my sister did a happy dance to this book. She's a big fan of anything horror (usually I just do zombie anything) so I thought I would give it a try. It's the summer, I feel like going crazy. So I did.  I made sure the dog slept with me and reading the book was awesome. This book is creepy. Super duper creepy. What makes it even scarier is that there are photos. Real photos of real people doing weird stuff. There are monsters and adventure and some really peculiar stuff that happens. Every time I turned the page I had a second of fear, not sure if the next page was going to have a picture that was going to scare the hell out of me. That's right, the book literally had me scared of it.

I found this book when I was perusing Barnes and Nobel, as I am known to do, and I was drawn to the cover. It's a black and white photo of a little girl levitating. What's creepy about it is her face. No smile, just looking you dead in the eye.

MP follows a boy who goes on a mission to find out his grandfather's secrets. His whole life he'd been told ... peculiar stories from his grandfather's past. As he got older he stopped believing them. Until one night, when things got weird. After that night he realized he needed to know what was going on so he traveled halfway across the world with his ornithologist father to Great Britain to do some exploring on his own.

The nice thing about this, probably why I liked it, was that there was a somewhat happy cliffhanger ending. Not so much happy as hopeful. No worries, I'm not giving anything away. I loved, loved, loved the character development, especially near the end. This boy grows and by the end of the book he's a completely different person. Have I mentioned that this book is creepy? I'm shoving this book in my sisters hand the second she gets off that plane for the summer. If I liked it, there's no question that she'll like it.

Because it's a YA novel the writing style was easy to read, something I'm craving now that college is out for the summer. I'm getting older and the characters aren't but I still enjoy young adult novels just as much as I did when I was a teen. I'm happy to have found this book and been given a good present for getting through the school year! I highly recommend this book. Read it, if only for the pictures.  

TTT If You Liked...

If you liked The Walking Dead movie adaptation, read the comic books!

If you liked Zombieland read Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen.

If you liked The Other Boleyn Girl read the book by Philippa Gregory

If you liked Romeo + Juliet read William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher

If you liked "The Secret" read What the Bleep Do We Know?

If you like using Pusheen stickers on Facebook then you should read I Am Pusheen the Cat

If you liked Warm Bodies then read Married with Zombies by Jesse Peterson

If you like watching Big Brother then read Dead Famous by Ben Elton

If you liked Pretty Woman you'll like Candy Girl by Diablo Cody

If you liked Resident Evil read Boneshaker Cherie Priest



As a side note: If you like 50 Shades of Grey you need to read Diary of a Submissive by Sophie Morgan. You know, so you see what real BDSM is.

Book Blog Giveaway!

The first prize is available via the rafflecopter below. The 2nd is available only to bloggers who post about this giveaway. You can find info on how to enter the 2nd giveaway in the rafflecopter.

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Ends 4/30/14

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