2 Months Gone

Oh my goodness. Let's just take a moment to realize that I have not posted on this blog in TWO months. As if that is not bad enough that is about how long it has been since I have read as well. Sadness all around. At last check I had gotten down to only being 3 books behind schedule according to goodreads, I am now 14 books behind. More sadness. 

The good news is I actually read a ton of books in May and just never had time to post them. I got promoted at work in June, hence the disappearance from the blog & reading. BUT I am finally starting to feel like I can breathe again. I still probably won't be able to read much until August because I am in my FINAL semester (summer term so it is only 5 weeks) of graduate school! In less than a month I will have my Master's degree and will be done with school FOREVER (maybe)!

So now that all that is out there, here are all the books I read in May and one that I read in June!

1.  Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
2. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
3. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
4. Looking for Alaska by John Green
5. Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas
6. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
7. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
8. I Was Here by Gayle Forman
9. The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
10. The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau

Man. Those were some good books. I got to read a lot by some of my favorite authors (Sarah Dessen, Gayle Forman, and John Green). So far I think Looking for Alaska is my favorite John Green novel. 

I have the Selection by Kiera Cass checked out from the library and I am so pumped because I have had a hold on it since March or April. I have heard a lot of good things about the series so I am hoping to really like it. See y'all next month probably! :) 

Finally Friday

I don't know about y'all, but this week has seemed like the longest week everrr. But at least it is finally Friday! May just started but so far I have read 4 books so I am pretty happy about that. ALSO Goodreads says I am only 3 books behind on my year book goal so I'm extremely happy about that. I realized that I haven't been keeping up with my other book goals (the list one) very well so I'm going to sum up what ones I have finished & what ones I still have left. 

2015 Reading Goals

1. A book with more than 500 pages.
2. A classic romance.
3. A book that became a movie. Paper Towns by John Green
4. A book published this year. Velvet Kisses by Addison Moore
5. A book with a number in the title. The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas
6. A book written by someone under 30.
7. A book with nonhuman characters.
8. A funny book. Yes please by Amy Poehler
9. A book by a female author. Stubborn Love by Wendy Owens
10. A mystery or thriller.
11. A book with a one-word title.
12. A book of short stories. The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare
13. A book set in a different country. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
14. A nonfiction book.
15. A popular author’s first book. Looking for Alaska by John Green
16. A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet. Shelter by Harlan Coben
17. A book a friend recommended. The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer
18. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
19. A book based on a true story.
20. A book at the bottom of your to-read list.
21. A book your mom loves.
22. A book that scares you.
23. A book more than 100 years old.
24. A book based entirely on its cover.
25. A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t.
26. A memoir.
27. A book you can finish in a day. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
28. A book with antonyms in the title.
29. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit. Just One Day by Gayle Forman 
30. A book that came out the year you were born.
31. A book with bad reviews.
32. A trilogy. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
33. A book from your childhood. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
34. A book with a love triangle. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
35. A book set in the future. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
36. A book set in high school. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
37. A book with a color in the title.
38. A book that made you cry.
39. A book with magic.
40. A graphic novel.
41. A book by an author you’ve never read before. 3:AM Kisses By Addison Moore
42. A book you own but have never read.
43. A book that takes place in your hometown.
44. A book that was originally written in a different language.
45. A book set during Christmas.
46. A book written by an author with your same initials.
47. A play.
48. A banned book.
49. A book based on or turned into a TV show.
50. A book you started but never finished. 

So I've still got a ways to go but I'm not too worried. If I can survive this summer I'm hoping for a lot of reading time come fall.  Happy Friday, y'all! 

April Reads

Thanks to all my romance novels this month I am only 5 books behind schedule on my yearly goal now. Woot woot, take that Goodreads! I read three different romance series this month adding up to 12 books so that was nice. In addition to a few other one other book. I do think I will switch back to YA for a bit. I have two YA books checked out from the library currently. Uglies and Looking for Alaska so I will start with them. Here is a complete list of books I read this month & my thoughts on them:

1. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot (reread)
2. Call Me Cat by Karpov Kinrade
3. Leave Me Love by Karpov Kinrade
4. Tell Me True by Karpov Kinrade
5. Stubborn Love by Wendy Owens
6. Only in Dreams by Wendy Owens
7. The Luckiest by Wendy Owens
8. 3:AM Kisses by Addison Moore
9. Winter Kisses by Addison Moore
10. Sugar Kisses by Addison Moore
11. Whiskey Kisses by Addison Moore
12. Rock Candy Kisses by Addison Moore
13. Velvet Kisses by Addison Moore

Whew. That's a lot of books for one month. All the rom-com books were super easy reads. I was reading about one a day on the days I would read. I think my favorite series was the one by Wendy Owens. I really like how all of the ones by Addison Moore are about college students. 

The Princess Diaries is a reread from my childhood. I go the first couple for my 12th birthday and I remember laying on the floor by the fireplace reading them. There is a new one out, Royal Wedding... So I would like to reread the whole series (especially cause I can't remember where I stopped in the series) and finish with it.

Oops.

 

I just realized April is almost over & I haven't posted once. Whoops. In my defense I have been reading a ton. Lately on the days I have been reading I've been reading about a book a day. That is because my friend Mistie has recommended all these romance novels. Before this month I think I'd maybe read like one... maybe. I just never cared for them. I couldn't relate. They were all about older men with fancy jobs who rescue the young woman and it just wasn't for me. However, these ones Mistie showed me are all about college students so its much easier to relate. It's like a little Rom-Com packed into a book. I think the thing I dislike the most is how the authors feel like they have to tie everything up with a perfect little bow. I mean yeah its sweet, but not exactly all that realistic. It is OKAY if the girl doesn't get EVERYTHING. She got a lot of things, she doesn't need the pony, and the jet, and the pool too (clearly an exaggeration but ya know).

Anyways, I know this wasn't an actual post really. More of just me rambling, but whatever, you read it. If I don't post before, I will post at the end of the month with all the books I have been reading & will say which ones were my favorite and which were just okay. 

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!