Monday, August 27, 2012

Review: Stay


Stay
Stay by Deb Caletti

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I was almost afraid to read this book. so many people whose opinions I very much respect sung its praises loudly and long. I was afraid it would not live up to my expectations which were extraordinarily high. I need not have worried, it in fact exceeded them. This was an important book, and I think it dealt really well with obsession/stalker relationships. I also liked how the family life, while loving and good, still had some warts as all families do. This book came across as real, important, tragic and triumphant. I now have more of this authors books on my TBR.



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Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door


Lola and the Boy Next Door
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I enjoyed this book. A lot. First off not everyone in it was conventionally beautiful. Lola was just the kind of girl I would have fallen for. The fact her parents were a gay couple, while important to aspects of the story, was not a big deal. From the first page I enjoyed reading it, and was sorry to finish with it. It would be nice if some future date, Lola and Cricket grace our lives again.



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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Review: The Next Door Boys


The Next Door Boys
The Next Door Boys by Jolene B. Perry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I mostly enjoyed this book. It was a good story with believable characters you cared about. My biggest problem with it was it was relentlessly religious. Now I know Ms Perry does indeed write religious fiction, but it is not a genre I often read. I like her non-religious books so much I thought I would take a shot with this. Not sure I will read the rest of her Christian fiction. I'm a fairly hardcore atheist, and I find such wearing it on the sleeve relentless preaching both a turn off and somewhat ridiculous. But that is just me. I would think those from a strong religious background, especially if you are Mormon because that is the theology that filled this book, you would love it.



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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Review: The Iron Hearted Regiment: Being an Account of the Battles, Marches and Gallant Deeds Performed by T


The Iron Hearted Regiment: Being an Account of the Battles, Marches and Gallant Deeds Performed by T
The Iron Hearted Regiment: Being an Account of the Battles, Marches and Gallant Deeds Performed by T by James H≫ Clark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A wonderful free book from Google books. an account of the history and a listing of all the dead and how they died from the 115th New York volunteers in the Civil War. This was a well regarded regiment that was known for standing firm the in face of any onslaught, and managed to find themselves in the middle of every fight,. Written by a survivor of the regiment is is colorful and engrossing. ANY person interested in the civil war will love this book.



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Monday, August 20, 2012

Review: While It Lasts


While It Lasts
While It Lasts by Abbi Glines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Another very enjoyable read from Ms Glines. This book, like most of hers, touched on some important topics. Loss, family, what exactly IS family and the like. As with the rest of her Because of Low books it is filled with multidimensional characters who are more than the seem at first blush. I read this in two sittings, and enjoyed it start to finish.

One word of advice to Ms Glines, all your females are smoking hot, and all your males are ripped studs. Give the rest of us a little love in one of your books.



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Friday, August 17, 2012

Review: Measuring Up


Measuring Up
Measuring Up by Nyrae Dawn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



okay I'm just going to bust out and say it. Nyrae Dawn is a Goddess. Every book of hers is a masterpiece. I thought nothing could be as good as Freeing Carter, but this is. A wonderful book about learning to love yourself, learning who you are, and learning to tune out all the voices telling you that you are not enough. Just an amazing boom, a one sitting wonder you cannot put down.

This woman is going to be a household name, it is absurd she is not already.



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Slammed and Point of retreat by Colleen Hoover


  Want to read a couple of GREAt "Can't put em down" books?

eBooks « Colleen Hoover

Review: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead


By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead
By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I read this book due to the strong recommendation of my 14 year old daughter. I am very glad I did. this was a profoundly sad and moving book. It deals with the issue of being bullied better than anything I have ever read. I would think this would be a great book for a read and discussion in high School. What a wonderful book, yet so very sad at the same time.



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Review: Slow Twitch


Slow Twitch
Slow Twitch by Liz Reinhardt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book surprised me by taking an entirely different direction than I expected, and made me like it all the more for that. It was easily my favorite of the trilogy, but some of that because threads from the previous two became clear.

Brenna Blixen is one of the most interesting characters I have ever read. Their is almost no emotion you can fell, that I did not at some point feel for her. In the end, she became a rounded and interesting person with some obvious faults, and obvious virtues. In short, a real person. I've never disliked a character so much as I disliked her during the middle of the 2nd book, and ended up limning them in the end.

Liz Reinhardt is an interesting writer that draws real and complex characters warts and all. Getting to know them is like getting to know real people, how tou fell about them constantly evolves and changes. Really amazing to read.



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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

BBC News - Sci-fi author Harry Harrison dies

  We've lost another giant.  Harry was one of the all time great Sci-fi authors.  His Deathworld Trilogy and Stainless Steel Rat books are classics.



BBC News - Sci-fi author Harry Harrison dies

Fake Historian David Barton Wants to ‘Fix Errors’ in Book | Crooks and Liars

  Fix errors?  After being voted the "Least Credible book in history," and having your publisher pull the book in horror at the fact you lied about everything, how on earth do you fix it?  LOL


Fake Historian David Barton Wants to ‘Fix Errors’ in Book | Crooks and Liars

Review: Lengths


Lengths
Lengths by Steph Campbell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I just plain loved this book start to finish. More an NA than a YA read, time to make a new shelf perhaps. A sexy, touching exploration of two people who are broken in their own different ways, though they do not appear so to most people, who come together and find that in helping another you might just help yourself.

This is one of those books that makes me hate my NO SPOILERS rule. There are a dozen or more scenes I would like to discuss. how they managed from both lead characters points of view to in short passionate, telling scenes say more than dozens of pages other authors mite use for background.

This is the type of reading I love, complex characters who are at turns wise and stupid, good and bad, well rounded believable people that will remind you of people you know. Real world problems that people you know might face. No supernatural nonsense, no magic wand endings where complex problems just evaporate with a kiss.

As an NA book this was a little more overtly sexy than YA, but the sex scenes were both erotic and tasteful as well as mostly believable (Although I will note not all men have freakishly large genitalia, nor is that required for a man to be a good lover. As my father used to tell me, "Any man who relies solely on his penis to make love to a woman is an idiot.")

Go get a copy of this book and sit back and enjoy a great read. Best if you have a lover nearby though because the erotic scenes are really erotic. . . . .



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Review: Junk Miles


Junk Miles
Junk Miles by Liz Reinhardt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I do not even know how to begin with this book. I really wish you could do half stars here because though I hated parts of this book, i really like it in the end. Brenna Blixon is one of the strangest characters I have ever come across in YA lit. In the first book I at first found her interesting, but then started to question her. In this book I actually came to nearly hate her. I had to keep putting this book down because she was making me so darned angry. here is a girl that had everything handed to her, had every talent you would want, and she there she is acting like the worst girlfriend you could ever imagine. Being male I think it hit me hard because she made me thing of every girl that every yanked my chain or broke my heart made me feel bad. If I had met her in real like I would have greeted her with a contemptuous sneer and a few choice words about her lack of any character.

Much to my surprise in the second half of this book I started to realize that having everything come easy to you always is its own sort of trap. that lack of every having to struggle can in itself cause problems. How difficult it would be when finally you had choice sin front of you that were not easy and obvious. suddenly I was feeling sorry for her, and starting to care. By the time I got to the end of the book, and I set this book down in anger more than almost anything I have ever read, I couldn't wait for, and immediately started the 3rd book in the series.

Liz Reinhardt has written one of the strangest characters I have yet found, simple on the surface yet infinitely complex as you learn more and more. Very few writers that I have ever read have managed to make me feel as passionately disgusted and so deeply sorry for and finally so strongly rooting for in the end. i could large for giving this book 2 starts, or 4. I liked it, then I hated it, then I like it then I loved it all in turn. I'm really looking forward to the last book.



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Review: Unbreak My Heart


Unbreak My Heart
Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



several people had told me I should read this book her eon Goodreads. This is a great example of why I am on Goodreads. I'd likely never have had a chance to find it otherwise and I loved it. Not a grand sweeping tale filled with epic heroes and fear inducing villains. Instead a small story, of a shot period of time, concerning the choices people make and how the heart can lead you astray, and how the heart can also bring you back. Somehow for the smallness of the story it tells a bigger truth. Despite the foibles of some of the major characters, it lead me to care for them more.

I like stroies where the good guys aren't all good and the bad guys are not all bad. We all have Yin and Yang in us. I don't want to bust anything that happens, but it was a soul satisfying story that worked out all my emotions over the course of the book. It ended in a very believable way that made it feel like these were people I know. A wonderful reading experience that will leave you satisfied.



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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Review: Wintering


Wintering
Wintering by Shirley Miranda

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Loved this book as much as the first two. Already looking forward to book 4. The characters in thes series are as real as the kids I grew up with. As with the other two I read this basically in two sittings. Had I not had to do family things, it would have been one. Buy this series and enjoy!



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Friday, August 10, 2012

Letter from Gay Son to Romney - Supporting Dad: "My Dad Was Going to Vote for Romney, Until I Wrote Him This Letter"

  A powerful letter from a Gay young man to his father who was planning on voting for Mitt Romney.


(2) Letter from Gay Son to Romney - Supporting Dad: "My Dad Was Going to Vote for Romney, Until I Wrote Him This Letter"

Colleen Hoover books update!

Coleen Hoover's GREAT books SLAMMED and POINT OF RETREAT have been reissued by ATRIA BOOKS a subsidiary of Simon & Shuster. New covers and a new look. Both these books are bestsellers, and i gave both 5 stars. Read them one right after the other whit hardly a break to eat and sleep. Ms. Hoover is an upcoming superstar, go get these. Colleen Hoover's eBooks:

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Review: The Drowned Cities


The Drowned Cities
The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



An excellent follow up to Ship Breakers. A gripping slam bang story that is beleivable and keeps you running right to the end. I'm hoping that a third book will be coming, and the end left that possible, though not necessary. Really well done.



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Thursday, August 2, 2012

If You Oppose Marriage Equality, What Else Am I Supposed to Call You?

  Perfectly put by one of my favorite bloggers.


If You Oppose Marriage Equality, What Else Am I Supposed to Call You?

Review: Ship Breaker


Ship Breaker
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed this book a very great deal. A good combination YA/post-apocalyptic book. Believable characters, believable society, believable disaster that lead to it all, and a nice combination of slam bang action and character development.

When I got done I immediately started his next work, Drowned cities which takes place in the same world.



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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Review: I Loved You First


I Loved You First
I Loved You First by Reena Jacobs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book really spoke to me. I suppose it might be because when I was younger I had a good friend who was a lesbian and I had a severe crush on her so i could really identify with the problem our protagonist Alexandria faced. She also had the added burden that they had been best friends since childhood adding to the pain of the unrequited love.

I thought author Reena Jacobs handled her internal conflict with tact, sensitivity, and real pathos, without ever making her pitiful and whiny. Not an easy feat.

The conflicts and situations Alexandria and her friend find themselves in were as real as your own college experience. It never felt staged or forced. The parties were like parties I attended back them. The people reacted like real people.

I thought it a really good exploration of what is love, and who are we in our deepest selves. How does one deal with conflict and disappointment? This book will work out your emotions. It is funny and sad, sometimes it will make you angry, other times it will make you feel triumphant. I give it my full recommendation. Not at all your usual YA read, yet not something you'd be afraid to let your teen read too. There are so few really good books out there that I have found so far with good, and real LGBT characters in it. This one is a good start to fixing that problem.

Go get a copy and enjoy!



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Romney Aide Curses at Reporters in Poland, Apologizes

  A person from Newsy asked that I provide a link to this story to provide balance.  It is from a more conservative news source than the other.  I'm happy to do so.


Romney Aide Curses at Reporters in Poland, Apologizes