Eh...

Twelve

For a long time, I kept coming across this novel by Nick McDonell in bookstores. It got to the point where eventually I just decided to read it, because I kept picking it up and I figured if it was so prominent it must be decent. There are several characters in the book, and we get just a glimpse into the lives of each of them, most of them rich high school kids. The character that's focused on the most is White Mike, a prep school kid turned drug dealer. The title "Twelve" comes from a drug of the same name that one girl gets addicted to. There could be other references to the number in the book (maybe the number of key characters?) but I haven't thought through it carefully enough to say for sure.

Overall, I was disappointed. Maybe it's just because the narration has an observer-type feel, but I didn't feel especially attached to any of the characters (although I can't help but notice that "The Great Gatsby" had an observer type thing going on and I still really liked that). I just... didn't understand the point of the book, I guess. Especially the ending. Obviously since it's selling so well, there are people that are getting something out of it, but I just wasn't one of them. I give it 6 pretzel bites.

KAY

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

I just finished reading this book by Amy Bender which I borrowed from my step-mom. It's about a girl named Rose who can taste what people are feeling by eating food that they've made. It seems magical but actually hinders her quite a bit. However, even though this is the selling point plot aspect, I found that for a lot of it, that part sort of took a backseat, and instead the book concentrated more on Rose's family dynamic: Rose, her genius but extremely introverted brother, her enthusiastic but lonely mother, and her friendly but somewhat awkward father.

The first half of the book (the parts taking place when Rose is nine and twelve) I absolutely loved. The imagery was clear, the prose was lovely, the characters were complex, and the story was interesting. However, sadly, the second half I did not enjoy as much. It got into this weirdness with her brother, and I guess the characters started to feel farther away to me. There were still some really nice sections, but I just didn't enjoy it as much. I wish it had lived up to the fantasticness of the first half. Overall, I give this book 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

Classic reading, part two

Sense and Sensibility

I decided to read this book because I'd never read anything by Jane Austen and I really wanted to! This is a classic about two very different sisters, Elinor (the reasonable one) and Marianne (the passionate one), who fall in love and have problems arise. In the beginning, I had to concentrate really hard to figure out what was going on just because of the way that it's written, but once I got past all the exposition, it got easier. Plus, the language is just so wonderful (for example, "'We may treat it as a joke,' said he, at last, recovering from the affected laugh which had considerably lengthened out the genuine gaiety of the moment"). I thought it was witty and interesting and quite enjoyable. I know some people don't like Jane Austen because they say her endings are too happy, but sometimes it's nice to read books with happy endings, don't you think? 8.5 pretzel bites!

KAY

A semi-classic

Lucky Jim

My fake aunt gave me this book (a novel from the 50's by Kingsley Amis) for my graduation because it's her favorite. It's a British book about a slacker named Jim who is trying to please his boring boss in order to keep his job as a history professor. Things get a bit more complicated when he takes in interest in his boss's son's girlfriend. Madness ensues.

For the first chapter or so, I thought this book seemed kind of boring, but after a while I got a lot more into it. It's quite witty and funny. It kind of reminds me of "The Importance of Being Earnest," but they're not that similar. I think it's just the whole British comedy with an entertaining character taking interest in a girl thing. In the end, I really enjoyed it. I give it 8.5 pretzel bites!

KAY

A brief post from Paris

The Book Thief

This novel by Markus Zusak was passed along to me after everyone in my family read and enjoyed it. It takes place in Nazi Germany and features a young German girl named Liesel Meminger. It follows Liesel throughout her childhood, looking at her brother's death, her foster family, her friendship with a boy named Rudy, her friendship with a Jew being hidden in her basement, and, of course, her book thievery. It's narrated by Death.

I loved this book! It's categorized as a young adult book, but I think it reads well for people of all ages. I thought it was interesting to look at World War II from a German perspective. It's funny at times and heartbreaking at times. The imagery is wonderful. The characters are complex. There are so many beautiful lines. Overall, it was just generally amazing. 9.5 pretzel bites!

KAY

After all the hype

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

For months, I've been hearing about this novel by Junot Diaz and how great it is. The main character, Oscar, is a Dominican, overweight sci-fi obsessive who wants nothing more than to find love. The book follows Oscar throughout his brief life, and also tells the story of some of his other family members, like his sister and his mom. It also continually ties back to the Dominican Republic and Dominican culture.

After all the hype, I was expecting this to be one of the greatest books I'd ever read. At first, I wasn't really interested in it at all. I thought maybe I wasn't smart or patient enough to understand the greatness, or that maybe I needed to be more well-versed in sci-fi or Dominican culture. After a while, I started to enjoy it more. It was kind of funny/engrossing at some parts. In fact, a lot of times it reminded me of the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude," but I'm not entirely sure why, because I wouldn't really classify it as magic realism. Anyway, I didn't find it as amazing as the rest of the world seems to have. I also think the ending would have been better if the last chapter wasn't there. I give it 7 pretzel bites.

KAY

Finding Amazingness

Looking for Alaska

This was the only book that I hadn't yet read by John Green (see reviews of his other books here and here), and it was definitely my favorite. The book is about a boy named Miles (nicknamed Pudge) who goes off to boarding school and makes mischief and new friends, specifically the girl who becomes his new obsession, Alaska. The book is divided into "before" and "after." Now, you may ask, "Before and after what?" Well, you'll just have to read the book and find out.

And you should. Read the book, I mean. It's funny, it's touching, and the characters are great. You'll learn lots of famous last words. John Green never underestimates the intelligence of his readers, which I greatly appreciate. He writes books that are enjoyable and easy to read, but still carry a lot of meaning. I loved this novel! An enthusiastic 9 pretzel bites.

KAY

Already excited for Oberlin!

Await Your Reply

Summer time is finally here and I'm so excited to be reading again! I picked up this book, by Dan Chaon, because I'm going to Oberlin College in the fall where I want to study creative writing, and Dan Chaon is one of the creative writing professors there. Plus, oddly enough, he is good friends with one of my favorite high school teachers. I hope he doesn't leave before I get to have him as a professor because I was very impressed by this novel.

There are three separate story lines in this novel that eventually connect: Ryan, a college kid who just found out a big secret that's been kept from him his whole life, Lucy, a high school graduate who runs off with her former history teacher, and Miles, who has been looking for his missing and slightly insane twin brother Hayden for 10 years. Over the course of the book, the stories start to connect. At first, it is just in subtle ways, such as theme (the exploration of identity is a big one), but by the end, they are completely intertwined, and it's fun to find the clues along the way.

I suppose this is a suspense novel, but normally when I think of suspense novels, I think of a really exciting plot with lots of twists, but then characters and writing that are a bit shallow and underdeveloped. However, even through the plot twists, I feel like at it's core, "Await Your Reply" is still an excellent piece of literature. The characters feel real, and the prose is beautiful. I was very excited by this book, and I give it a solid 8 pretzel bites.

KAY

Let the summer reading begin

Atlas of Unknows

I finally finished my first book of the summer! It's a novel by Tania James about two sisters from India. The eldest, Linno, is an excellent artist, but her life hasn't exactly followed the traditional path, and she is haunted by her mother's death. The younger sister, Anju, is incredibly intelligent and wins a scholarship to study in New York, where things don't go exactly as planned.

I liked this book alright. It was written in a very slow and descriptive style, and I kept expecting to get more into it as the plot picked up and I began to connect more with the characters, but it never really happened. Plus, the ending wasn't as satisfying as I would have liked. I'm completely fine with loose ends, I just wish the whole story was given a little more meaning. I give it 7 pretzel bites.

KAY

Light reading with substance

The Man of My Dreams

I first picked up this book because I read Curtis Sittenfeld's book "Prep" and really enjoyed it. Overall, I think I liked "Prep" better than this one, but this was still a good read. I know that from the title, it sounds all, "OMG I had a turbulent romantic history but true love will prevail!" but it's not really like that. I thought the characters came across as very real, complex, and relatable. What I really like about Sittenfeld's books is that they're really addicting and easy to read, but at the end I still feel like she has something of substance to say, which I really appreciate.

This is a book about a girl named Hannah and her ideas about love. It follows her from her junior high days up through her late twenties. I don't know how to easily sum up the plot, but I guess I'll just say it's about broken families, feeling abnormal, waiting, loneliness, and things not going according to plan. In the beginning, I thought I wasn't going to like it, because the junior high part feels a little... well, distant, I suppose, but after that it really picks up. Also, I thought the ending could have been stretched out a bit more. Everything was just wrapped up in letter form, which I didn't really like. But! These are just minor complaints. 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

Y.S.K.O.V.

You Shall Know Our Velocity!

This is a novel by the wonderful Dave Eggers. The basic premise is this: the main character, Will, came into quite a bit of money by doing virtually nothing and he doesn't want it. One of his best friends since childhood, Jack, just died and, in addition, Will was just badly beaten up, leaving his face all gruesome looking. Will and his other best friend, Hand, decide to go around the world and give all the money away, but they only have a week to do it. I will let you know that this is not one of those books where they get to the first place and decide, "Actually, let's just stay here." They really do go several places.

The plot is not gripping, but that doesn't really bother me. The characters are amazing and the writing is beautiful. I love the character of Will. Basically, the whole book is just an extended look into his head and it's fascinating. The middle was the best part. I think it fizzled out a little bit at the end. Not that the end was bad, the middle was just better. Overall, if you're looking for gorgeous, quality writing with interesting characters, I fully recommend this book. 8.5 pretzel bites!

KAY

Michael Crichton

Airframe AND Timeline by: Michael Crichton


So i got both these books at a used bookstore about 4 months ago and didn't read them either until about two weeks ago. Then I blazed through both of them.



So: I have learned that Crichton tends toward starting his books with a few people that you never meet again. In this case its a couple who are hunting rugs in New mexico and they find a crazy old man in the desert who only talks in rymes. Next, they logically take the crazy guy to a hospital. He promptly dies as all of his organs fail on him. Cut to some Harvard researchers in the French Dordogne river region, where they are doing some archaeological dig for some medieval buildings. The private company they are being funded by suddenly calls in the leading proffesor. Buisness continues as usual


until the team uncovers an underground room and find a centuries old scroll with the proffesors handwritting on it. The rest of the researchers demand answers from the company. The company then reveals that it has acces to quantum time traveling equipment and the proffesor has been trapped in the past. So the rest of the researchers of course have to go back and save him. I liked the book well. It was about a good and contoversial subject. But I swear Crichton must have taken whole college courses on each book he wrote because he has such a wealth of knowledge on each subject that he writes about. It is a bit rediculous.
Finnal rating: 7 pretzel bites
Fun fact i wrote a book review of this for my teacher for extra credit and he though I didnt actually read the book. Really Mr. Weber?





Airframe Review: So as mentioned before this book starts off with a couple of people we never meet or hear from again. They are are on an airplane that experiences some "difficulties". The rest of the book is just the company trying to figure out what the heck happened. I cant tell you much more because it pretty much all important. Now i know everything about 1980s flight procedures and the FCC. Its pretty interesting and i had a hard time putting it down toward the end.
I give it a 8 pretzel bites

TEE

She's so dead to us

She's So Dead to Us

This book, by Kieran Scott, is in the vein of such books as the A-list series and the Clique series, and I would imagine that if you liked those books, you'd like this one as well. The basic plot is this: formerly rich Ally Ryan suddenly had to leave town when her father caused her friends' families to lose millions. Now Ally's father is M.I.A., and she's moving back to her old town to live in a crappy condo and face the girls who used to be her friends. She returns to discover that a boy named Jake is now living in her old house and hanging out with her old friends. Ally likes Jake. Jake likes Ally. Ally's former friends do not like Ally and don't want Jake to be with her. Drama ensues.

I feel a little bit bad because we got this book specially from our friends and I didn't even really like it that much. The exposition seemed a little blocky. The characters were not as complex as I would have liked them to be. The plot was interesting, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I did get really caught up in it in the middle. Overall, though, I prefer my light reading to have just a bit more substance than this novel did. I will also warn you that it's meant to be part of a series, which means that at the end, nothing is resolved. There's just a huge cliffhanger. I give this book 6.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

I'm a Sarah Dessen expert now

That Summer

Hey, pals. So I just finished this book by Sarah Dessen. It was the only one of hers I had yet to read, and now I have read her entire collection, which is a little nerdy, but also makes me really happy. For a more general review of Sarah Dessen books, read my review of "Along for the Ride" here. In this book, 15-year-old Haven longs for summers past, specifically the summer when her sister Ashley was dating the fun, charming Sumner. Now, Ashley's getting married to a boring guy named Lewis, her family's falling apart after her parents divorce and her father's marriage to his mistress, and Haven has just about had it. That's when Sumner shows up again, making Haven long for the past even more. This definitely wasn't my favorite Sarah Dessen book (you can see how her writing matures in her later books), but it was still a really nice short spring break read, and I liked that the ending wasn't picture perfect. I give it 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

I don't want to be a freshman all over again

Please Don't Kill the Freshman

This book is a memoir by Zoe Trope about her freshman and sophomore years in high school, about falling in love, about being gay, about getting a book deal, about feeling misunderstood. I first picked it up because someone told me that something I wrote reminded them of this book. It was meant as in, "The writing and characters are really good, but the public won't like it because there's no plot." So, of course, I had to be self-centered and go read the book that was supposedly like mine. The first thing I discovered, before I even started reading, was that on the cover there are comments from DAVE EGGERS and JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER saying how genius it is. If Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer loved something I'd written, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care if the public did or not.

So yes. There's not really a plot. That didn't really bother me. It took me a little while to get into it, because a lot of times it's written kind of like poetry. It can be very cryptic. At first, I found the author irritating. Then, however, I hit a point where I couldn't put it down. I just wanted to keep reading. I still found it irritating in places, but it was just so beautifully written. There were several lines I had to reread multiple times because they were just phrased so perfectly. This book is definitely not for everyone, but overall it is a truly lovely piece of work. 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

Guess who's behind the times again?

The Time Traveler's Wife

So, by this point, practically everyone's heard of this book by Audrey Niffenegger. However, for a really long time I had the impression that it was about women being abused in ancient China, and that was never something I was in the mood to read. I know. I have no idea why I thought that. Then I saw the trailer for the movie (which apparently is horrible and I have no intention of seeing) and thought the concept seemed kind of interesting. For those of you who have been living under a rock like me and don't know what it's about, there's this guy named Henry who every now and then just disappears and travels through time involuntarily. Not like, oh wow, let's revisit Germany and try to stop Hitler, but like, to parts of his own past and whatnot. He's been visiting his wife Clare (who does not travel through time) ever since she was a child, so they've always known that they were meant to be together, and the book is the tale of their lives together. A lot of it takes place in Chicago, which was nice because I was familiar with a lot of the settings.

In the beginning, this book was really intriguing. The whole concept and logistics of time travel really interested me, and it was strange to think about because, when it really comes down to it, they only met because future Henry told past Clare they were supposed to, and then Clare grew up and met Henry in the present and told him, "Hey, we're supposed to be together." Interesting, right? It must have taken a lot of planning on the part of the author, too, to get all the chronology to match up. After a while, though, it got into all this drama where they were trying to have a kid, which was more boring for me, maybe because I can't relate. Then at the end, it got really intense out of nowhere. I didn't find the ending all that satisfying. I think I lost interest a little bit in the middle. Anyway, I give this book 7 pretzel bites.

KAY

The andromeda strain

So, yet another book by Michael Crichton. Guess what? I really like him. I swear I have learned more from him than all of my years of schooling. This book, The Andromeda Strain, is a classic. But I have to say, this is not one of my favorite books by him. Quite the contrary in fact, I think it may be my least favorite. For the sole reason it just seemed like he got tired of writing it and just ended it in the cleanest and quickest way possible. I believe he got sick of making up and researching obscure medical facts. Which I can't blame him for. I generally like the book, but, like I said, there were more serious medical and biological facts than I needed. In the final analysis Crichton writes a spellbinding novel with a seemingly real reality for all of his characters. So in concluion 8 pretzel bites.

TEE

Remember "The Lottery?"

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

This is a novel by Shirley Jackson, who's the woman who wrote that short story "The Lottery" that so many people seem to be assigned to read in school. This book is relatively short; only 146 pages. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to the narrator, Mary Katherine (a.k.a Merricat) who is 18 but seems much younger. She lives with her older sister, Constance, her invalid uncle, Julian, and her faithful cat, Jonas. The village people hate Merricat and Constance, and for the most part the pair hide out in their house. The rest of their family was murdered.

Parts of the story were intriguing, and one thing I liked about it was that it was a little vague in what time it was set. There was no fantasy element, yet everything in the story felt a bit fantastical. I also think Jackson did an excellent job with her characters; they felt complex. I enjoyed the book, but it didn't thoroughly grip me. There's was one point where I thought there was going to be a major twist, and then... there wasn't. There were also times when I felt as though something was being built up to, and then whatever it was wasn't as big as I'd expected. I give this book 7 pretzel bites.

KAY

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in

The Brooklyn Follies

Hmm. Let's see. How can I sum up what this novel (by Paul Auster) is about? It's not really about just one thing. It's about broken families, forgery, almost dying, actually dying, classic literature, and escape. That's a pretty nice collection of topics. However, I will start by saying that I found the narrator irritating. He was easily my least favorite of all the characters in the entire book. Perhaps because of this, I liked the shorter stories of the past within the main story better than the main story itself. I never found myself bored of the book. In fact, it was something I was often in the mood to read, and I enjoyed it while I was reading. That being said, I think it lost a little steam towards the end, and honestly, it failed to make much of an impression on me. I think, in the end, it just didn't make me feel much of anything. 7 pretzel bites

KAY

Economics for people who don't like economics

Superfreakonomics

This is the second book written collaboratively by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the first being "Freakonomics." I've read both books now, and they're both really interesting. Both of them are nonfiction books that use economic principles to discuss everything from prostitution to global warming to monkeys. I think a lot of people shy away from the books because they hear "economics" and it makes them think "numbers hfdsuig stock market vasuigriutwt economy crash iothsgnsoet boringness," but that's not what the books are like at all. They use economic terms (externalities, incentives, etc.), but explain them in a way that even if you know nothing about economics, you can still get a lot out of the book. If you're looking to read a chapter just to get a feel for the book, I reccommend "Chapter 3: Unbelievable Stories About Apathy and Altruism." That one was my favorite.

What I really like about these books is that Levitt and Dubner get so much information in there without making you feel overloaded. Whenever I flipped back to look at something, I always went, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this part! Oh yeah, and that part, that was interesting too! Wow, there was so much stuff in this chapter!" I learned about some subjects I knew nothing about and, additionally, got a new take on some subjects I was more familiar with. I would say don't read the book for the hook questions they advertise with ("Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance?" for instance), because the answers to those are usually not so interesting, but the other information that accompanies those answers is fascinating. I don't have the greatest patience for non-fiction, so it wasn't exactly the kind of book I couldn't put down, and I definitely liked some sections more than others, but overall it was a really interesting book, and I reccommend it to economists and non-economists alike. 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

Read this post and someone somewhere you dont know will die...........

Okay so hopefully you people on the internetz (whoever you may be) have heard of the semi-recent movie, The box. Well the movie is total crap. Sorry Cameron Diaz you can NOT do a southern accent. But this isnt a blog about crap movies. The actual story the movie is based off is about 10 pages. Really short. Yes its true this is a collection of thrilling, creepy, mind blowing, short stories. Which all are really good! Well minus one. But there are always anomalies. Anyway this book really wants me to read more of his stuff. 8 pretzel bites

TEE

Darwin?

Leviathan: Scott Westerfield

Yes, that Westerfield.
The one who wrote all the uglies and pretties and specials. Which are very good books (for the series i give em' a 8(don't tell anybody i sneaked you a double review.))
But i think he should stick with books like that. Steampunk and Scott. Well they just don't click. With that said the ending is very gripping. I have mixed emotions for the sequel. Seriously WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE OTTOMANS?! But the book in general took me a while to finish because the middle section was so long! I like the plot in general, who cant love genetically modified floating whales used as warships or star wars walkerish things? If you don't you have no soul :(
So probably 6.5 pretzel bites

TEE

Bookshaker!

BONESHAKER
So. Ive started reading a new genre. Its called steampunk and the two books i just read are crazily similar. It is mucho frightening because they were both Christmas gifts. The whole steampunk genre is all about alternate history with some of the future thrown in. Boneshaker, is all about some kid whose dad destroyed Seattle then dies and he is trying to prove himself and stuff in this walled off city with zombies and the like. Fun huh?
I like Cherie's writing style but its not exactly what one would call unique. Yes its a good book. But i could also put it down. She does make very likable characters. I could relate in someway shape or from to one or more of the characters. So 6 pretzel bites

TEE

Mystery, jokes, and graduation

Paper Towns

This is a book I got for Christmas by John Green. It's about this semi-nerdy kid, Q, who is infatuated with this girl named Margo. He goes on this crazy all-night adventure with her, and then she disappears. However, she leaves a string of clues behind her, and Q is determined to find her. I didn't like this book as much as Green's book "An Abundance of Katherines" (reviewed here), but it was still an entertaining and addicting read (a.k.a. I didn't sleep as much as I should have because I wanted to stay up reading). I just thought that Q's friends were a little more interesting than Q himself, and sometimes Q had a way of getting a little overly philosophical. While his musings were interesting, they were the parts of the book I liked the least. His friends got a little philosophical at times too, but I found those musings a lot more interesting and they made more of a connection with me. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the ending. However, I still recommend this book because I had a fun time reading it. Also, all the thoughts on high school graduation got me thinking about my (fast approaching) graduation, so it was nice to have that connection.

Random unimportant fact: there's this one character in the book named Radar, and the way he is described in the book sounded a lot like this kid in my class, so without meaning to I've started thinking about Radar and the kid I know as the same person. Anyway, I give this book 7.5 pretzel bites

KAY

It's electric!

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

I just finished this classic book by Tom Wolfe. It's all about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, which is the group that essentially started the psychedelic movement. It's non-fiction, but it doesn't read like, "Oh, and then on this date, such and such happened fhush boring fact." It reads more like a novel. It was kind of hard to adjust to Wolfe's style at first, because it's kind of crazy and different (he used the style to add to the description of the LSD experience), but I got used to it. Apart from just having a great title, I found this book really interesting. All the characters are really fascinating and vivid. At first, I was not so into the book. Once Wolfe went back to the beginning of the story, I became more engrossed, though there were a lot of parts I had a hard time concentrating on. My overall favorite part of the whole book was the part about this guy named Sandy.

I have a lot of respect for Wolfe for compiling this massive amount of history, and then presenting it in an interesting way. I had to keep reminding myself that it was true, especially because at times it all seemed so surreal. The thing that bothered me the most doesn't even have to do with the writing, it has to do with the cover; it specifically says several times in the book that on the front of the Pranksters' bus it said, "Furthur," spelled just like that, with two u's. However, on the cover, it was written "further." Stupid complaint, I know. I just found it irritating. Overall, though, a fascinating story. 7.5 pretzel bites.

KAY

Splendid

Splendor

To close out my winter break, I also closed out the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen by reading the fourth and final book, "Splendor" (click to see reviews of books two and three). I have to say, I had a really fun time with it. In the beginning, things were kind of calm and humdrum, but by the middle it got really intense and dramatic again. I was a little bored of Elizabeth by the end of the first book, but in this one there's a big twist in the Elizabeth story. By the end of the book, I found myself wanting even Carolina (who previously bothered me a little) to have a happy ending. And the ending is happy to some extent, but not all Hollywoody, cheesy, over the top, which I really appreciate. In fact, over the past day I keep returning to the ending, and the more I think about it, the more I think Godbersen handled it perfectly.

And speaking of Hollywood... usually I am completely against turning books I enjoyed into movies, but in this case I think I'm going to have to make an exception. These books could be such good movies if they were done well. The costumes would be gorgeous. A lot of what I like about the books is imagining the setting and way of life at the time, and I think movies could capture that really well. So, my final word on the Luxe series: it's a little soapy and girly, but it's also really fun and addicting to read. These were the perfect books for winter vacation. I give the final installment 8 pretzel bites.

KAY