Page Blitz on Books, Poetry and Thinking...

"Clean" By Amy Reed

2011-08-24T05:19:00.001-07:00

a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9491739-clean" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">Clean by Amy Reed

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started this at lunch yesterday and finished it this morning.

What I can say about this book is that it is not easy to get through. There are kids with crappy lives, crappy parents, crappy drugs. Some topics were just shocking! But this stuff happens in real life. Kids go through this stuff every day, I've met kids like these people. The message of this book is clear; be responsible for your actions. My favorite part of this book was when Kelly and Jason learned that they have to accept responsibility for their actions now, not when their 29, living on the street, loosing everyone they once loved.

There are many characters in this book. Each are believable. Each are real. At first I was a bit overwhelmed by all of them. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep them straight, but after a little while I felt at home with them. The writing was really strong too. Every word seemed deliberate, just the way I like it.

I can't wait to read more by Amy Reed.

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"I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak

2011-03-09T06:16:00.000-08:00

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's as important as "The Book Thief", also written by Markus Zusak. This is a novel so well thought out, so specific in its message that the message gets delivered to us and won’t let us go. Ed Kennedy is a real character with human thoughts, insecurities and failures. His mission is one that many people would not have chosen to go through with. We are introduced to so many characters; a battered and broken wife, brothers at odds with each other, a girl afraid to do what her gut tells her to, a woman living with the loss of a husband, a family who don’t have enough money for Christmas lights, and the list goes on. Some have said that this book was not good because we didn't get a chance to know that characters well enough, because there were so many of them. I say "no". This is a novel developed, beautifully, into a first person narrative. We only see what Ed sees. Anything else would not have worked. We don’t need to hear their life stories; we just need to see the hurt that they are going through now. We need to see the message Ed has to bring to them. And then we need to see their happiness.

Reading this novel, I found that I don't want to be the message. I want to be the messenger.

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Maggie Stiefvater's blogg is awesome!!!!!!!! Check it out!

2011-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/

"Mockingjay" By Suzanne Collins

2010-08-25T13:36:00.001-07:00

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When walking into “Mockingjay” don’t carry any expectations in with you. Suzanne Collins will blow your mind and shatter every sense of trust you may have in this concluding novel in the Hunger Games series.

Written as if you are right there, Collins has a way of making a person feel every emotion her characters go through. Take for example the time where Katniss was worrying about everything that was going wrong, I felt like my heart was going to explode from anxiety. And during a scene of great loss you heart cries and mourns for everything and everyone involved.

I recently read an interview in the School Library Journal with Suzanne Collins. In the article she talks about war and its effect on the young. She expressed a need to tell children about war at a much younger age like here dad did for her. Just reading “Mockingjay” has left me reeling in the atrocities and crippling realities of war.

Katniss doesn’t disappoint in this last book. She still fights hunger and loss and the confusing workings of love. But one major characteristic of her that we see shatter is her pride. She sees how she is just a piece in this giant game where no one can be trusted. The boy Collins chooses to make a lifelong partner for Katniss might not be your ideal option. But, somehow it feels right and in a different time it might have worked out differently.

Katniss is still as strong and able to kick-butt like we’re used to seeing. Prim grows and her mother blooms again.

But be prepared not to feel happy or satisfied with this ending; it just can’t be done. There is so much loss and heartache. The ending just makes you see how war ends and how it leaves the people in it. It’s no fairytale ending, but it is an ending that thousands of survivors are left with after a war. For those of us who have never been in a war and don’t have people directly involved or fighting in one, I hope that we can learn and shutter at the realities of war and see beyond agendas.

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"The Beautiful Between" by Alyssa Sheinmel

2010-08-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Connelly is a young girl living in a fairytale land. She lives in an apartment in New York City with her mother. She sees herself as Rapunzel trapped in a tour. Protected from the past, Connelly has never questioned how or why her father died. Well, that is until Prince Charming, Jeremy, from school befriends her. He makes her question so much about her self. Connelly helps Jeremy come to terms with his sister’s cancer.

This is a friendship that explores the very core of who we are in our grief and shows that it is okay to move on, eventually. It doesn’t take your true love to free you from the tall tower; it takes a friend willing enough to bare the grief for both when the truth is revealed.

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"Glimpse" by Carol Lynch Williams

2010-07-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Glimpe", written in prose, is a book that is so real. The main character, Hope, is so innocent and is dealing with a mother who is do nothing to protect her from losing it.

Hope tries to come to terms with her sister Lizzie's attempt suicide. She needs to know why her sister would take such strong actions towards herself.

Twelve year old Hope is brave and smart. She does what every sister should; faces the monsters the other sister is too scared to talk about.

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"Before I Fall" by Lauren Oliver

2010-07-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When my manager asked me to read this book I was a bit skeptical. I had read some reviews on “Before I fall” before hand and thought it was a book I wouldn’t like.

Sam, the main character, is a popular girl who thinks it’s her job in life to bring everyone around her down. Sam gets into a car accident after a night of drinking, smoking and partying with her friends. She wakes up to the last day of her life for six more days in a row. During this time she sees how meaningless her life was and how distrustful it was to others.

BUT…

As the book goes on Sam realizes that meaningless sex isn’t what she wants. She also comes to the realization that loosing your virginity isn’t something you have to do before you die. Slowly, she sees that her life has been a shallow mess. She hasn’t done one thing that warrant’s her not dying.

So, gradually I started to like this book. Sam realizes that the “face” her and her friends put on is damaging not only to them selves but to the people around them. Sam sees that her actions do affect people, just like their actions affect her.

In the end Sam does the noblest act a human could perform, and this makes me like her.

Lauren Oliver is speaking to a generation of girls who have been lied to. They have been told that it’s okay to be the “mean” girl, but it’s really not. Oliver shoves, throws and shouts a theme that many young adult writers are catching on to; that you’re responsible for your actions.

So, I'm left feeling that I love it and, yet, I dislike it. But in the end I like it…and that’s why it’s a great book.

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The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

2010-07-08T08:00:00.001-07:00

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With the first hundred pages I was kind of put-off from this book. I thought the writing was good, but I did not like all of the graphic adult content. Never the less Blake captured me with the reporter Frankie’s broadcasts.

When Frankie brought me through to Germany, France on the trains I thought of all that was happening and I was struck with the stories that paved our way home. It's overwhelming to think that the people who were suffering on the trains were not feeling the full force of suffering like the people in those camps or the people who were not even given a chance to pack, but were just killed.

This morning my brother talked to me about possibly joining the army when he turns eighteen, he's sixteen now. Now I find myself acting like Frankie; wondering how I could be just sitting here while a war is going on in a different land. I'm asking myself why I can go on and not be directly affected by it.

And then sadness takes over. I see that these countries we are in a war with are suffering at the hands of extremists groups. We are in there fighting, killing the innocent and the guilty. I can't imagine living in such fear; just thinking about it makes my heart want to explode.

I don't think war is ever right. It's always caused by greed and pride. But Frankie grabbed my attention. She showed me that you have to pay attention. You have to get people to see that there are innocent people to fight for. I think I'm finally looking now.

The Clearing by Heather Davis

2010-06-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

The Clearing by Heather Davis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"The Clearing" is a beautifully written story about a girl named Amy trying to heal after being in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend.
She decides to leave her mom's house and move in with her aunt Mae. Aunt Mea lives in a small town and on a lot of land. While walking one day Amy happens upon a mist in the clearing. Amy soon stumbles upon Henry Briggs, an eighteen year old boy living in the 1940's.
Amy and Henry soon fall in love and their relationship is strained by Henry's inability to move on and let the future happen no matter how difficult it’s going to be. Henry has to learn that he needs to pray himself back into his time so that the future can be right again.

I am deeply in love with this story. I loved Henry because of the old-fashioned respect he showed for Amy, looking out for her purity and happiness. Amy's problems with her abusive boyfriend was something refreshing to find in a YA novel, I feel that it has been quite some time since I last read a book on abuse.

I also like the message that is spoken in this novel. Heather Deaver shows us that we must carry on with the future because of its effect on other people, no matter how hard it’s going to be.

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Summer!

2010-05-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Summer has officially begun for me.
I finished off the school year with A's except in Spanish, which was my hardest class. I also got a new job at a book store whose name can not be revealed. So on top of my part time job at the library I now have a part time job at a book store. My biggest fear is that I won't have enough time to read.

A few books that I have read in the last few weeks are the following:

After the Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy
and
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
and
Nothing by Janne Teller
and
Hound the Hound by Mo Willems

The first book is excellent and beautiful.
The second book is eyeopening and truly heroic.
The third book is a modern day version of Lord of the Flies and is very depressing.
The fourth book... well lets just say the Mo Willems really lived up to his own standards; which means it was awesome!

So, when the time comes that I can read more fluently and less sporadically I will post more reviews or thoughts or what ever else comes to my head.

Linger!!!!!!!!!!

2010-05-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Kissing Annabel by Steven Herrick

2010-04-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Kissing Annabel: Love, Ghosts, and Facial Hair; A Place Like This by Steven Herrick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
"Kissing Annabel" reminds me of Edger Allen Poe’s poem "Annabel Lee". Although Annabel doesn't die in this book, I feel that in some way Jack is protecting her from that death because he couldn't protect his mom.

I found the poem his sister wrote to be very chilling. I can only imagine how many daughters of breast cancer patients have done the same thing; worried that they some day soon would get the disease. I wonder what it would be like to live in this fear.

This book is not a love story. It’s about moms. It’s about dads. It’s about how Jack, Annabel, Emma, and Craig would learn to be moms, dads and uncles, and how this would be the single greatest job in their lives.

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Every Little Thing in the World by Nina de Gramont

2010-04-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Every Little Thing in the World by Nina de Gramont

My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Sydney, 16, gets pregnant and is sent away for the summer on a canoeing trip. The whole book is about Syd trying to decide what to do with her baby.

I had hope for this book. I thought Syd would do the right thing. I am deeply disturbed by this book. I feel shaken and fragile.

After she has an abortion the author writes; "We were like babies, safe somehow in the forest. We were the newest creatures on Earth, with nothing to do but move forward into the world, starting fresh."(p.272)I can't get this passage out of my head; it makes me wants to throw up. Here are these teenagers playing like adults and yet she still sees herself as a baby. What about the baby inside of her that could have turned into a girl just like her. The baby is newer than her, who has no power over its self; it should have a chance to start a new. Whatever happened to taking responsibility for your actions?

God has given us a conscious to know when something we are doing is wrong. If so many women have to deal with a pregnancy and the option to abort it, why do it anyway? When it feels so wrong? The bible says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Found in Psalms). God talks about knowing us before we were even in our mothers’ womb. I don’t see how aborting a baby could ever be justifiable.
I’m going to go throw up now.

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If Peace Was Like Fairy Dust

2010-04-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

If Peace Was Like Fairy Dust
by Laura Connell

If peace was like fairy dust

I would coat the whole world

Sprinkle some on the meanest

Cruelest

Wrestles

Hardest

Loneliest people.

But peace isn't fairy dust

So

I'll keep praying.

Small Wars by Sadie Jones

2010-03-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

Small Wars by Sadie Jones

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Haunting on so many levels, epic and real.
This book really had me. The last paragraph of this book is what I have been waiting for since I started to read, it's an ending with meaning. This book is so beautifully written. The ability to forgive that Jones allows her characters to have is breathtaking. We could all learn a thing or two about forgivence.

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All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

2010-03-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have been watching a lot of 48 Hours Investigates episodes lately. This book was a mind game for me. I thought that it had to be Audry's boyfriend right from the start, although it was based on different evidence. These characters are so brave and the truths they unveil are scarry and big. I love this book completely.

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Edwar's Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan

2010-03-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

Edward's Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Edward's Eyes is beautiful. The topic for discussion is not normaly known or talked about. I loved Edward's life, his family, and the cause. I also like how the children in this book love their new brother or sister and raises them from the start. Most people would see this as parents passing on their responsibilities but they and I don't see it like that all. Something special is formed between these brothers and sisters, probably the strongest love of all.

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The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

2010-01-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Unwritten Rule: You don't like your best friends boyfriend.

Sarah has always been the loyal best friend, comforter, and problem solver to Brianna. Brianna has always been there for Sarah, making sure she fits in with the popular crowd. Sarah helps Brianna as she struggles with two parents that neither care for her nor want her. But one thing is in the way of Sarah and Brianna's relationship; Sarah loves Ryan, Brianna's boyfriend. As Sarah's feelings towards Ryan grow their relationship blossoms into something more, into something physical, she is forced to deal with Brianna's problems and the misuse of Brianna's relationship with Ryan. Brianna dates Ryan because she can make him stay but when she feels her grasp on him slipping she realizes she can't have everything she wants. Sarah learns in the end that she is someone, unique. Ryan helps her see that she is her own person and should do what her passions are, she shouldn't hide them out of the fear of rejection. Sarah no longer wants to be defined by Brianna and realizes that her happiness counts for something too.

Elizabeth Scott does it again, bringing something not spoken of out into the light. The Unwritten Rule explores the depth of the emotional and physical struggle to do the right thing, but also to follow your heart. The deep struggles Sarah has within herself are unbearable. She so desperately wants to do the right thing, but she wants even more to love and be loved by Ryan. This book could be classified as a coming of age novel, not a a childhood to young adulthood, but it has the gradual change from youth to adulthood. The Unwritten Rule takes immature relationships to mature relationships with meanings and futures. Scott shows that the unwritten rule needs to be written and spoken of and calls for people to be defined by their actions and beliefs, not by the opinions of others. The Unwritten Rule is insightful and the characters are developed well. I look forward to reading her next book Grace.

Inkheart!

2009-11-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

Right now I am reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. This book is one of those books where even though it might start up a little bit slow or take three hundred pages to get to the real action scene's, you read every page carefully. Funk's writing is like nothing I have ever seen before. The sentences move smoothly off of the tongue. Remember how its all about how you tell the story that counts, because all plots are the same, that makes it a great story. Cornelia knows how to write. but not only does she know how to write, you can see that she take her time and pays special attention to every word, because just like in poetry every word counts. I am on page 410 of 534. I recently watched the movie Inkheart and I wasn't impressed. The movie goes off from the original work in so many ways. The movie takes us to a village where Mo and Meggie are looking for books and there they meat Dustfinger. Who ever wrote the screen play would have captured the audience a lot better by sticking with the book because it was the intimacy between father and daughter and the security of a home that really captures the reader from the start.

I guess this goes to show that books should not be made into movies because no matter how hard they try movies are just not able to capture the depth of a book with out adding romanticism or other pieces that were not entirely there. If I could write a book it would be just like Inkheart. I wish I wrote it, but I am thankful for Cornelia Funke who has such a great and talented imagination that I only know that it must have come by reading many great books.

So I will leave you with this thought:

Be careful what you think up in your books, because if you cant deal with it in your own world what makes you think that the world in your book and handle them too.

My First ARC!!! and Thoughts

2009-11-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

I have some great news. I am signed up for my first ARC! This means so much to me because I am new at this whole bogging thing. So you might be wondering what book I will be receiving... Its The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard! It comes out in January of 2010. I have to read this book within a week, write a review, and then mail it to the next person on the list. I have heard great words about this book so I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I also applied for an ARC on The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott. Elizabeth Scott is one of my favorite authors. Her style is unique and never boring. Scott's book Living Dead Girl was her most haunting and probably most controversial book yet. I would compare Living Dead Girl to Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold. There is action. There are times while reading it that you ask your self why you are reading it and why you haven't thrown it across the room. But it never seems to leave your hands because your convinced that it must have a happy ending. When you get to the end though its anything but happy and you have to live with or find comfort in knowing that the little girl is now dead, but at least she wont be tormented by her kidnapper/ rapist.

Saying all of this brings me to another point. Why do we read books that are disturbing? I guess this same question could be directed to movies or television as well. I often get flack because I went through a time in my teens where I read a lot of books about the Holocaust. I can't explain why I did it but I know that I was searching for people to live. I wanted to find hope in a tragedy shattered with pain and fear.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know I would love to hear from you all. Thanks for taking the time to read.

-Laura

Impossible (Book Review)

2009-11-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

Nancy Werlin's most recent book Impossible is based on an old folk song "The Elfin Knight". For generations women from a particular decent are having babies by the time they are eighteen and then once they give birth to their child they become crazy, forcing them to give up their children and live a trapped and lonely life. Lucy, a young teen with ambitions, dreams and a mother who is crazy. On the night of her school dance something dreadful happens, she becomes pregnant. This will change Lucy's life forever in a good way if she can break the curse and in a bad way if the curse isn't broken. With the help from her friend Zack, who becomes something MORE than a friend, and the help of her adopted parents Lucy sets out on a nine month journey that has power over the rest of her life. Lucy must perform three tasks that will free her from the grasp of the Elfin Knight. This tale will sweep you into its curse and make you fight for the freedom of Lucy and her future daughters. The reader of this lucky book will be put under its spell and craving for another "possible" book.

Tuck Everlasting (Book Review)

2009-11-11T13:17:00.000-08:00

Natalie Babbitt captures a perfect definition and description of what an August day really is like. This particular August day brings to life all childhood memories and submerges one into those hot summers as a child. Winnie Foster, a ten year old girl is suffocating on the heat of August and the constrictions of a rigid house hold. Winnie dares her self to runaway from home one morning and into the mysterious woods behind her house. She stumbles upon a boy who is drinking from a mysterious spring. This boys name is Jesse Tuck. Jesse does not let Winnie drink and is relieved when his mother and brother, Miles find them. The Tuck family takes Winnie back to their house so that Winnie could talk to their father, but mean while a man in a yellow suite is following closely behind them. When Winnie arrives at the Tuck's house fear and excitement fill her. Winnie spends a pleasant night with the Tucks and their story of being immortal due to the same spring Jesse was drinking out of. The Tuck's stress how important it is that no one knows of this spring. The man in the yellow suit arrives at the Tucks house and plans to make a fortune selling the water from the spring. Once he announces his plans to the family a series of events unfold leaving Winnie with the chance to do something meaningful with her life, to prevent a catastrophe from ever grasping its hands on the world.

At twenty years old I feel the need for youth and beauty storming my conscious, so little time before age starts to show. So I ask myself this question; what would happen now if this drink was available to the entire world? being the reader of such a gifted book one is left with this lingering thought. As the reader we know what the future was going to be like, Winnie did not. If one was to find a mysterious potion to keep us all alive forever what would happen to the future? How could anything else develop or advance? And what if this potion eventually run out? What would it be like to watch your children die as we stay young and healthy? The questions can keep on going and become exhausted over time. But never the less this book embraces aging and also the things one does with this limited amount of time. This book possibly gives us a healthy perspective on aging in a vanity rich society.

7-28-09

2009-11-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

So now I'm here in this place
Where the smell of the future
opened its doors
to me
Could one place really make your heart cry?
Carry your body through every kind of torture?
It has
but I want more of it
I want to breath it in and never
let it come out
Freeze it
So that these moments where
God
Is the most
Is enough
Is everything
in this very heart of mine
enters through these tears
and lasts for more than a moment

The Future

2009-11-08T17:55:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time....
Yea I know I have been really bad at posting blogs on here, but I hope to start again.
My summer was amazing! The best summer ever.
I kept a journal all summer because I had limited time on-line. So now I wish to write a whole lot more. I am an English major so this will provide new things, and times, to write about. Some times I feel things bursting inside of me... its time to let it out now.

The Estate

2009-02-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was so beautiful...it smelt so good out
the ground was being uncovered slowly by the sun
snow and ice filling the drains and giving us a safe place to walk
A gentile breeze blowing across my face blowing my hair in my eyes.
Watching the beautiful sunset over the estate,
I hope to get pictures of it some day.
Its the most beautiful site in the world,
there are so many different colors: Blue, pink, magenta, orange, yellow. Words don't do Gods handiwork justice. He paints us pictures that we don't seem to take the time to look at. With hate, lust, persecution, destruct that we do to each other every day the perfectness of these elegant views in the sky doesn't change. At creation this was his handy work. This brought him joy and this still brings a few of us joy today.
The best part about this beauty is that its silent, it says so much without saying anything at all.
Stop and look at this, its something you can see wherever you are. Wow this thought is so reassuring. Each one of us are his handiwork, made just the way he wanted us. Look for the beauty that God sees in even the ones that you think aren't, because they are fearfully and wonderfully made.