March Reads

Wow! How has another month came & gone? Time goes so fast lately I swear. I did a little better on books this month, but I still need to start reading more if I want to reach my goal of 100 books this year. The books I read this month were:

1. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
2. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
3. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham
6. Paper Towns by John Green 

1-3 Was a series and I really enjoyed it, but it took me longer than I expected. I loved the characters, but when compared to The Mortal Instruments, another series by Clare it just wasn't as exciting.

I did a blog on number 4. Again, did not care for it.

I loved number 5 because it is a continuation from the show Veronica Mars, which is one of my all time favorite TV shows. Reading it was basically just like watching it in my head. I could picture all the actors perfectly and it was written exactly like the show. If you have never seen Veronica Mars I highly recommend the show (it has three seasons, junior year of high school, senior year, and freshman year in college), the movie (it takes place ten years following the last season of the show), and now the books (this one takes place about a month or so after the movie ended).

I like John Green's style of writing and wanted to read number 6 before the movie came out this summer. I liked it and am going to try to read some more of his books. Let me add that to my ever growing list of books to read. 

According to Goodreads I am still 10 books behind schedule. Neat.  

Book Review: Never Let Me Go

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Page Length: 288

Summary from Goodreads: As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special--and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

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I will be honest, this book left me pretty blank. Normally I feel really happy/sad/or angry when I finish a book. I felt nothing after this one. It was almost like I hadn't even read it. And then I found out it is a movie with Kiera Knightly. What!? I don't understand. I can think of a million books that are better to be turned into a movie. But whatever. This will contain spoilers because if you haven't already read it I don't think you should and therefore I will let you know why. However, if you want to read this book (why???), don't read this review. 

Here's what I liked about the book:

1. I liked Kathy and Tommy a lot. I HATED Ruth. Ugh that girl. Too bad I didn't read this before I did my characters I hate post. She definitely would have made it on to that list. That being said I enjoyed reading these characters. 

That's it. I don't think I really enjoyed much else. 

Here's what I didn't like about the book:

1. You're literally confused for the first half of the book on what's even happening. Then you start to clue in and find stuff out but you can't even be surprised. And then it ends. Nothing happens. Well, nothing super interesting or important. 

2. I couldn't even tell when the book was set. 1970s? 2070s? Sometime not in the 70s of any millennium? I vote 1970s but it was still weird. Maybe it was harder to relate to because I'm not from England? I don't know. 

3. What is a carer?! Someone who sits with people when they die? From what I could tell they have no medical training. There are nurses and doctors mentioned and they are not them. 

Basically. You're cloned off someone, typically a low person in society. Prostitutes and drug addicts seem to be the norm. You're created to die. You get to live a little. Take care of other people while they're dying. And then you get to die. What!? No. This is dumb. The moral if you will of the story is that they're created to cure the world of major diseases like cancer and heart disease. And this is important. Also, you see some dynamics of people not wanting to deal with the fact that they were basically playing God and creating people willy nilly to then kill. In theory the use of clones like that could be an interesting read, but to me this book did not deliver.  I was disappointed about this book for 2 reasons. 1. I had seen other people who had read this book and really liked it, so I assumed I would too. LIE. 2. The summary has the words special and gift to describe them. I thought they would have like cool superpowers or something. SPOILER, they don't. 

Maybe I'm being too harsh. I mean I didn't necessarily hate the book. But it will definitely leave my memory soon and it will be like I didn't even read it. My advice: Skip it. Read something else. Something better. 

Tuesday Top 10: Characters I Hated

So a month ago I said I was going to do a post over characters I hated. & then I never did. Whoops. So here it is. I tried to pick characters I really despised and could actually put into words why. It was a little harder than I thought it would be. Mainly because I have a terrible memory for remembering all the books I've read and my brain tends to only let me think about recent ones. 

1. Sebastian/Jonathan from Mortal Instruments. I mean he was just plain awful. Always making trouble/trying to kill everyone. If he is your favorite person we need to look into some underlying issues you may have. 

2. Valentine from Mortal Instruments. Again, trouble, trouble, trouble. I basically compare him to Hitler in my mind. He wanted a supreme race. Was willing to do just about anything to make it happen. All around bad dude. 

3. Percy from Harry Potter. You don't abandon your family! Period. 

4. Voldemort from Harry Potter. I mean you can't have a characters you hate list and NOT put him on it. He's on it for Hedwig and Dobby alone. 

5. Umbridge from Harry Potter. Okay I truly hated this woman. She was the worst. Who makes you carve into your skin?! Psychos, that's who.

6. Rita Skeeter from Harry Potter. Ugh. Lies, lies everywhere. Constantly trying to instigate. Ain't nobody got time for you Rita. 

7.  Lilly from the Princess Diaries. One of the worst best friends ever. She was terrible to Mia. A best friend that only brings negativity to your life is not a best friend you need. 

8. President Snow from Hunger Games. What is with all these old men trying to ruin young girl's lives? Oh, plot. Look, the man constantly poisoned himself to avoid suspicion as he poisoned all his enemies. That is one sick individual.

9. Cindy from The Women's Murder Club series. Cindy is just plain dumb. Always putting herself in bad situations without thinking. Whenever I get to her parts in the book I usually have to take a break because I get so annoyed.

10. Nate from Infernal Devices. WHAT A TERRIBLE BROTHER. He deserved what he got. 

So there are a few of the people who get my blood boiling. I know there are more but this is what I have for now. Now I must go look at pictures of butterflies and rainbows to get out of the terrible mood thinking of all these people put me in! Happy St. Patrick's Day, y'all!