Review: Lover Unleashed

Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



So I'm crying a little inside right now. I started writing a review and somehow clicked out of the box, pressed backspace and lost the whole thing. So, I'm definitely in deep mourning right now. And I'm also trying to remember what all I was saying and what I was thinking. It's a very complicated process.

But enough about that, I am supposed to be talking about the book, not my failings with my mouse pad. Alright, so I love the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. And after a little while of reading things that I do not typically read, I was very glad to get back to something that is within my genre spectrum. (The last book that could have counted before this being The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer also recommended).

So we have this, book number nine of the series and I find that I feel it is very disloyal really to try to review this book without mentioning any of the others. For those of you who have read any part of the series, the story builds on itself in such a way that it becomes almost a requirement to read the other books int he series before you even consider trying to read the later stories.

But, I will try to do just that. As much as I love this book and this series, I found myself a little disappointed. I wanted a little more. Maybe I'm just an action and adventure junkie. There was a little in the book, but it felt a little slower in its pace than some of the others. Mind it had its own surprises and I still love it, but I guess I just wanted a little bit more. even as the book was coming in the last few pages I found myself thinking: Well this can't be right, there has to be more to the story, doesn't there? As I have found, in this book there is not. Which means it is off to book number 10 where there must be more to come. Always more that I shall eagerly read.



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Review: Letting Go

Letting Go by Mary Beth Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



All I have to say is I was so disappointed...when it ended. I wanted to keep reading. Miss Lee very thoroughly brought the cast of characters to life and I wanted to read more about them. I wanted to immerse myself in the lives of Clarissa Dye and the Dillons. Mary Beth builds a world that is real and not overbearing in its Christian themes, something I have found that can be very hard to do. The characters are sincere and very relate-able. And though this review is much shorter than my usual, I truly believe that everyone should give it a chance and hopefully come to love Stearns and its residents as much as I do.



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Suppose Supposing

I admit, I though that I was going to have the review done earlier this week.  Given that said reviewed book was only about 250 pages and I was already a good hundred pages in, I really meant to have it done earlier in the week.  But c'est la vie.  Life has never really decided it wanted to cooperate that much.  That would be more of the wishful thinking aspect of life I believe.  That and I honestly was slacking a little in my reading because I knew that I could so easily finish it.  Oh well, there is really nothing to be done about the matter now and I can very proudly say that I have finished it and the that the review on Raising the Curve is up and ready to read for any of you who might find yourselves to be interested in it.

But my life is more than just reading.  Or it should be, though sometimes I think it would be nice if I could just focus on my reading.  It would be a lot more relaxing I can guarantee you that.  But that isn't what it's supposed to be about.  There are other aspects of my life.  Like my depression.  It isn't something that I like to talk about a lot.  I'm too afraid people will think that I'm trying to get attention because of it or that I'm lying or something else like that.  Whatever the case is, its something that I generally try very hard to hide.

It's probably also the reason I like candy so much.

Now that might seem like a leap in logic to some of you.  But really, there is a logic there.  You see, sweets release endorphins.  They make you happy.  That's why people usually enjoy eating them.  I use that to self-medicate especially when things are getting bad or I'm afraid that they might.  It's really not the best way to go about things, but going to the doctor isn't always an option and I really have this bad habit of not liking to spend money on taking care of myself.  I don't like buying shoes.  I don't like paying for medicine.  It's a really bad pattern, a worse habit.  Of course if my friends were to try and do the same thing I'd probably yell at them and when they realize what I'm doing they get on me.

Turnabout is fair play I suppose.

But that's why I love my friends.  They are there for me and I am there for them.  We've created our own little family of sorts.  We're all a little broken, but its okay because it helps us to understand the others.  We can see past the flaws that trip them up and they can show us that some things are worth living for if things get too dark.  It's a very real kind of therapy and a very real kind of family unit.  Some people say that family is the most important thing and I agree.  But I also think that sometimes we can't only count the family that we are born with.

Families argue.  They bicker.  Sometimes they know each other well enough to not really know each other at all.  When it comes to biological family there are certain expectations and for someone like me, it feels like I have never and will never meet them.  Whether that is true or not is yet to be seen.  When it comes a family unit of friends, however, the expectations become different.  It is not about pleasing everyone else or trying to find a way to see that you matter in their eyes because you already know you do.  When you pick friends for your family...you pick and you choose and in doing so, you show someone just how much they are really worth.

Review: Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of America's 45,000* Failing Public Schools

Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of America's 45,000* Failing Public Schools by Ron Berler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I'm not a bid reader of non-fiction. I don't think I ever really have been, but every now and then there are books that make me consider, well, reconsidering that point of view. This definitely one of those books. Well-written, highly researched, and very honest, Raising the Curve gives us a glimpse into a failing school, Brookside Elementary. But it's more than just a year as the title would have you believe because there is so much more to this school. There is the history of the town to be considered. The view of education that has laid the groundwork for where the school is, and even the groundwork for several of the children's lives who play main roles in this narrative.

But it seems hard to call it just a narrative. Written in a very conversational manner calling it a narrative almost makes me think that I'm trying to tell you about a well-researched piece of fiction when, in fact, that is not the case. This is a real story and, in a way, that makes what is written all the more poignant. Not everything ends happily or even magically. Bad things still happen and people still struggle and don't always come through victorious. I suppose, in a way, that makes the victories that are seen that much sweeter.

The story, in many ways, felt all too brief. I wanted to read more. I wanted to become more immersed in the story and the lives of these children and their teachers. I pray the best for them and wish that there was something I could do to help any school facing such a situation. I suppose, in many ways, that that is exactly what this book is meant to do. And it does it very well. Education is something that should be taken seriously before it becomes too late to reserve any damage which negligence does to it.



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Review: Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Spoilers Ahead!
Cloud Atlas is a book that is both pressing and engaging at the same time. What I mean to say is that while there are times that the book becomes hard to read and you feel like you're forcing yourself through every sentence, there is an underlying current which draws you in demanding your attention and holding it in such a way that you cannot even consider looking away.

The book is built around six central characters whose lives are intertwined not in their presents but rather through the marks that they leave in time. Each story draws on some part of the past working it's way from the farthest point back with Adam Ewing to the farthest future of Zachry and finally back to Adam Ewing again. The book can seem daunting and heavy at times with themes of past and future and how we shape the world with our beliefs and prejudices, but, at the same time, it has these stunning lines that make it almost impossible to to ignore no matter your beliefs.

By far, the hardest part for me to read was the sixth narrative and farthest point back in history: Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' After. It wasn't terribly written. It wasn't even boring. Actually it was very interesting. The story builds up a post-apocalyptic world. One which we have created for ourselves in our drive for power and progress. And it all culminates, at least for me, in a line that Zachry hears from a corpse as he finds himself being driven mad while a personification of the devil that they call Old Georgie tries to convince him to kill his companion, a woman named Meronym. "List'n to me, Valleysman, the soosided priest-king spoke, yay, list'n. We Old Uns was sick with Smart an' the Fall was our cure." (pg 279)

Despite the difficulty of the language for that entire difficult passage, that line engaged me. It's insinuations and even its ring of truth. It doesn't even matter to me that it is a figment of Zachry's imagination. Just because that is the case, does not make it any less true. And it makes you wonder if perhaps we should take a step back and wonder where all of our progress is taking us and if it is really worth it in the end.

But, I suppose that is why we also have the view point of Sonmi-451, a fabricant who is manipulated just to make a great show in a world ruled like a business. At the end of her testimonial which she gives before she is to be executed, she points out that she realized she was to die. She knew she was being manipulated. "But if you about this...conspiracy," the archivist asks, "why did you cooperate with it? Why did you allow Hae-Joo Im to get so close to you? Why does any martyr cooperate with judases? Tell me. We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist.[...]But to what end? Some...future revolution? It can never succeed. As Seneca warned Nero No matter how many of us you kill, you will never kill your successor." (pg 349)

And in that moment, we see that just because you have to die to get your message across doesn't mean it will be ignored. In fact, it makes it more likely that you will be heard and that people will remember.

Of course there is much more to the story than even this point. Throughout every narrative we find prejudices. Most are racial, blacks against whites. Fabricants against pureborns. Barbarians against the civilized. Old against the young. Rich against poor. During part of Half-Lives: The first Luisa Rey Mystery, there is a scene where Luisa attends a party held by her mother for what could only be called the upper crust of society. The conversation devolves into a demand for a virtual overthrow of government to be replaced by corporations. "'A meritocracy of acumen. A culture that is not ashamed to acknowled that wealth attracts powers...' '...and that the wealthmakers-us-are rewarded. When a man aspires to power. I ask one simple question: "Does he think like a businessman?"'" (pg 403).

Ironically that is exactly what happens by the time of An Orison of Sonmi-451. But all of these are beliefs. Ones that change over time as is said in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. He quotes a man he had once known and was visiting again by the name of Wagstaff who says "It's all rats' nests & rubble now. That's what all beliefs turn to one day. Rats' nests & rubble." (pg 486)

In a story that is both intricate and fascinating, Mitchell builds world upon world and twines them together intricately in a way that they cannot truly be taken apart and yet each stands on its own as a testament to a life lived those lives both happy and tragic. But of all the things in the story, I think that my favorite moment, my favorite part, my favorite line is the very ending as Ewing makes a conscious decision to change his life and the world that he is going to leave for his young son. "'He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life announced to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!' Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?" (pg 508-9).

Would it be nice to be able to live that? To be the drop that helps to turn the tide? And wouldn't it be even more wonderful, to be the one to inspire the other drops and watch as the ocean turns, ripples, and shapes the world around it? I'd like to think so.



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Doing Without

Another month, another set of paychecks.  I've discovered that when it comes to my job, I do not work full time.  I am perfectly alright with that.  As it is I work about thirty hours a week when all is sad and done with early clock-ins and having to stay over to get this or that done or to cover whoever needs help at the register.  And that works out well for me.  Of course it still leaves me very poor, but I'm used to living as a poor person so that isn't really the matter.

However, it does make things interesting living from paycheck to paycheck.  You see, it presents me with this little problem.  That problem revolves around my phone.  My phone is one that is sans contract which is nice for these months when I somehow manage to forget the phone or simply have to put other things before it.  Of course it also means that I have to make due without my phone for the time being.  I find that to be both highly stressful and strangely liberating at the same time.  There is something utterly relieving about not having to worry about calling so-and-so or texting a person back by a particular time.

Of course it also makes you wonder if something is going to happen in the interim.  Will the world fll apart while people are essentially unable to reach me?  I do wonder this one some level, but that just seems silly.  They can still reach me.  I'm obviously still getting online so there are ways.  But we have this conception with phones that that is the only acceptable way to truly communicate with people.  Now not everyone suffers from this particular belief, but unfortunately I do know people who do and I find it limiting.  Yes, I think it's important to have a phone.  To be able to call and text and communicate in that most direct of manners, but at the same time, it shouldn't be what we depend upon.  We have the ability to write for a reason.

Alright, I just had to get that out.  I was thinking about it yesterday after work since I couldn't actually text anyone to pick me up from work.  I had to wait for someone at the store to get off so I could get a ride home.  Which wasn't bad.  I only had to wait for about two hours so it wasn't so bad.

So! Update for the week!  I am still working on Cloud Atlas.  I am about half way through at this point, but given I have the next two days off I should (hopefully) be able to finish it or the other book that I have started working on Raising the Curve.  Not a bad read so far, I'm still very early on, but it is definitely not my usual kind of read.  It's not often that I read non-fiction, but this one is turning out to be very well-written and gives a very interesting insight that I am enjoying.  I'll keep you updated as much as I can!  And for anyone interested in the writing aspect of my life, I am trying to resurrect my writing blog Writing is Life.  I hope that you all have a wonderful day and I'll see you later this week!

Review: The Inventor's Secret

The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I was lucky enough to find this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy at the store where I work this last month. I have never had the chance to read anything by Andrea Cremer before nor have I ever read anything steampunk though the premise itself has always fascinated me. So has alternative history, though that I have at least had the chance to delve into before. Seeing the two aspects combined into one story was simply too much for me to pass up.

Unfortunately, because of how the cover was set up, I had no idea what I was getting myself into all. I had to guide my way was a little teasing blurb that did peek my interest. And so, I proceeded to read, slowly at first, but with an increasing curiosity and fever over the time that passed. I found the be charming and an exciting peak into a world that I am very excited to learn more about. I found the characters to be very real, especially the main character and narrator, Charlotte. While she seems very mature and sure, there are times when, as a person reads, they see that she is still very much a sheltered child.

Having grown up in the catacombs only surrounded by other children, there are times when Charlotte's ignorance of how the world works and how the relations between men and women can be, become very evident while, at other times, she can be seen as nothing less than a bold and daring young woman more than capable of taking care of herself and ready and willing to take charge at a single moment's notice. The other main characters have their own vibrance and secrets. Some that we see and some that we remain utterly ignorant of as Charlotte herself begins to see the world in new ways.

I can say without a doubt that I am very much looking forward to the following books.



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Girl's Gotta Do

So I have decided that I want to try and work on writing some book reviews.  As anyone who has read this blog has seen, there is one already up on the very popular book The Fault in our Stars by John Greene that I wrote after I finished reading the book last week.  At the moment, I am slowly (slowly because I keep slacking off and getting distracted) reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell as well as an Advanced Reader Copy (that is no longer advanced as the book did come out in April) The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer.  I am hoping to have at least one of them done by the end of the week so that I can write up a review for it.  Regardless of if I do or not, I am hoping to get into the habit of writing at least one post a week with updates as well as any new little tidbits that come to mind.

In this case, I can actually give an update about my own writing.  I am very proud to say that one of my story ideas, an old series actually, has decided to start cooperating with me giving me a project that I can actively work on.  In this case, it's actually series that emerged from the very first year that I was a part of NaNoWriMo.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it stands for National Novel Writing Month.  It takes place every year in November.  Through the month, those taking part make a pledge to attempt to write 50,000 words.  It adds up to about 1,667 words a day.  It can be a lot of fun pulling together people from all over the world.  I am very proud to say that I have been taking part in since 2009.  And if I'll be honest, I love telling people about NaNoWriMo.  I talk about it, probably every chance I get.

We all have our passions.

I guess you could definitely say that books are my passion.  It doesn't matter if I am reading them or writing them.  I have loved books from the moment I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone all on my own.  It was the proudest moment of my life.  Or, at least, it was certainly one of them.  From that moment on, I could even fancy that I have a touch of an addiction.  That might be considered a bad thing by some people, but my way of figuring is that it is far healthier than something like alcohol or drugs though I've no doubt there are some who would disagree with me in that matter.  I accept that as a simple fact of life and that we should all agree to disagree.  I don't plan to change my opinion and I think it would be rude of me to try to force my opinion on any other person.  Debating them respectfully is another matter entirely however.  That kind of thing, now that is fun.

But for now, I think I have babbled quite enough for the night.  For now, I shall bid you all adieu and I hope to have a book review for you all by the end of the week.  Until then, I wish you all very well!