By Golly, Ollie!

  • Book Report: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

    Before I Fall

    Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
    Released:     March 2010
    Publisher: Harper Collins
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    ★★★★☆
    Synopsis:     What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

    Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

    The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death–and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

    My Thoughts

    Maybe it’s too early in the year to tell, but Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver just might be my favorite read of 2012. Yeah, yeah, I realize it’s only four months into the year. But, Before I Fall is that good of a book!

    Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver made me feel an array of emotions. Isn’t it amazing when books can do that? At first I was angry and annoyed with the main character, Sam Kingston. She seemed so much like the selfish and entitled brats that annoyed me when I was in high school. But, despite that I wouldn’t wish Sam Kingston’s fate on anyone– to live her last day on earth over and over again. As each day passed, Sam Kingston learns about herself, about her friends, and about the people she alienates. And, as each day passed, I found myself becoming more and more sympathetic to this girl I initially deemed shallow and mean. As each day passed, part of me started feeling angry and frustrated and sad about all of the obstacles Sam had to face– friends, family, the kids she alienated, love and heart-break, all of it! I just wanted Sam to find peace and happiness.

    The tone of Before I Fall is very bittersweet. There were moments in the book that made me smile– like when Sam returns to her childhood secret spot, and she invites her little sister to tag along. It was an endearing moment, but considering the circumstances, I couldn’t help feeling sad. So sad, in fact, that Before I Fall will go down in my personal history as the second book ever to make me cry. (While the rest of my 6th grade class was weeping at the end of Where the Red Fern Grows, I was the only one with dry eyes. Even the boys cried! And, I didn’t even cry during any of the Harry Potter books.) And, Lauren Oliver’s writing was a perfect match for Sam Kingston’s story. It was beautiful and poetic (yet, Sam’s voice still seemed genuine), and that probably played a role in making my eyes tear up.

    Overall,
    Before I Fall was amazing. It’s a shame this was the second book I read of 2012. It sets a pretty high standard for the rest of the books I will read this year.

  • Book Report: Matched by Ally Condie

    Matched

    Matched by Ally Condie
    Released:     November 2010
    Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
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    ★★★☆☆
    Synopsis:     Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate… until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

    The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

    My Thoughts

    I was weary about reading Matched by Ally Condie (how many times have I started out my reviews like this?). For starters, I was very much aware of the hype surrounding the book– something that probably would have eluded me if it weren’t for fellow book bloggers. Don’t get me wrong, hype isn’t inherently bad, but it’s often hit and miss. I was also weary because based on the summary and other bloggers’ reviews, Matched revolved around a romance, and I’m always skeptical of romance in young adult books. (Then again, I’ve said that here, here, and here, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised each time. Maybe my tastes have evolved, and I shouldn’t be so quick to put my nose up.)

    Matched by Ally Condie paints a bleak portrait of a Western society that a government has, at one point, deemed to be over saturated with culture. Now, the world Cassia knows has been reduced to just 100 paintings, 100 poems, 100 songs, etc. Also, there is little choice in Cassia’s world. Decisions are left to statistics and the Sorters who analyze them. An individual’s vocation, the type and amount of food they eat, the types of activities in which they can participate, where they live, and who they marry is predetermined by Officials. And yet, this society, built and maintained by officials and statistics is about to crumble. By doing the things we take for granted, like learning to write cursive, reciting [forbidden] poetry, and falling in love with someone [she wasn’t matched with], Cassia is challenging the very foundations on which her society is built.

    I really appreciated the way Ally Condie incorporate poetry into Matched. For example, “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas had a functional purpose in the prose. By just knowing the poem, Cassia risks her family’s well-being. The poem also has value among a cultural black market too. Then the poem is also symbolic of Cassia’s character, yet it doesn’t seem trite.

    What I loved most about this book? Dare I say it? The love triangle. I never thought I’d see the day where those words were ever typed by my own fingers. The love triangle seemed natural; it did not seem forced– not like, there is a love triangle in this story for the sake of having a love triangle (see also: for the sake of all things trendy or for the sake of the ever lusty reader). The relationships made sense! Cassia loves Xander, her most handsome BFF4E. And, according to the statistics, they are each other’s perfect match; there should be no second guessing, right? Yet, when a glitch in the matching (or better yet a mistake) makes the ever mysterious Ky the apple of Cassia’s eye, things start to tumble out of control. He’s handsome and familiar like Xander, but he is also an anomaly. An anomaly– that’s not a good thing, by the way.

    Perhaps my only complaint about the story is the vagueness of the geography and current events. I wish there was an illustrated map on the inside cover or something! What I wanted to know was where Cassia lived in reference to the war-torn Outer Provinces. Where is Cassia’s world in reference to our world? I’m also kind of confused about the war that’s going on. I have to assume that Ally Condie is only letting on as much information that Cassia’ would be aware of, but it’s frustrating because so little information was given that I kept forgetting about the war. That being said, I’m really interested to know why a perfect society would be at war.

    Overall,
    I loved this book, and I devoured it in three sittings. I thought the characters and the world were rich with development, and I though Cassia’s relationship with Xander and Ky was lovely and genuine.

    Won from Ren @ Ren’s Rambles

  • Book Report: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

    Life As We Knew It

    Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Last Survivors #1)
    Released:     October 2006
    Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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    ★★★☆☆
    Synopsis:    Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

    Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all–hope–in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

    My Thoughts

    “Chilling” were my thoughts as I made it through the first fifty pages. The way Susan Beth Pfeffer writes about the events leading up to the apocalyptic event and the events that happen shortly after is absolutely chilling. I think this is because I could actually see people in reality acting the way they did in the book. Leading up to the asteroid crashing into the moon, people have a sort of morbid fascination with the event. All of Miranda’s homework revolves around the moon and, on the night of the event, everyone is throwing a party to marvel at the once in a lifetime sight. Unfortunately, nobody really knew what they were in for.

    The story itself was written in a diary format. I think for readers, this can be pretty hit and miss. While it gives the reader insight into Miranda’s thoughts, it’s also kind of written matter-of-factly. Miranda doesn’t wax poetic about the apocalypse, and I was bummed that the descriptions about how the world looked were lacking. Descriptions of how Miranda’s physique changed over the year when she was essentially starving were also lacking.

    The character interaction was really interesting in this book, but then what would you expect if you were cooped up in a house with no electricity with the same people day after day, and going outside means you may fear for your life? The relationship that really got to me was Miranda’s relationship with her friend Megan, who is very religious. Once the world starts coming to an end, Megan gets swept up by a cult, and Miranda slowly watches her friend disappear. This filled me with such sadness and disgust as Megan just wasted away.

    My biggest complaint about this book was considering it’s the end of the world, the people in Miranda’s town had it easy. All the families just stayed to themselves, and I wasn’t buying that. If the world is coming to an end, I’m expecting violence, looters and robbers, and beggars, and those people just didn’t exist in Miranda’s world. Then again, maybe these situations will surface in the books that follow Life As We Knew It. This is another instance where I unknowingly picked up a book, thinking it was a stand-alone novel, only to find out it’s part of a series.

    Overall,
    Even though some aspects of this story were unbelievable, I still really enjoyed it. And even though I missed the vivid descriptions of the world, I appreciated the diary format of the book since it didn’t romanticize the end of the world.

  • Book Report: Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson

    Shakespeare: the World as Stage

    Shakespeare: the World as Stage by Bill Bryson
    Released:     November 2007
    Publisher: Harper Collins
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    ★★★★☆
    Synopsis:     At first glance, Bill Bryson seems an odd choice to write this addition to the Eminent Lives series.

    The author of ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’ isn’t, after all, a Shakespeare scholar, a playwright, or even a biographer.

    Reading ‘Shakespeare The World As Stage’, however, one gets the sense that this eclectic Iowan is exactly the type of person the Bard himself would have selected for the task.

    The man who gave us ‘The Mother Tongue’ and ‘A Walk in the Woods’ approaches Shakespeare with the same freedom of spirit and curiosity that made those books such reader favorites. A refreshing take on an elusive literary master.

    My Thoughts

    If you’re not a fan of biographies, I challenge you to read Shakespeare by Bill Bryson. Bryson’s witty writing makes this book a fun and fast read. Well, that and the fact this book is less than 200 pages long. It may seem strange that a biography on one of the world’s greatest playwrights is so short; however, there are few records about Shakespeare and how he lived his life, and Bryson really emphasizes this point. He writes, “We are lucky to know as much as we do. Shakespeare was born just at the time when records were first being kept with some fidelity”.

    Bryson explores the handful of times “Shakespeare” (or “Shakp” or “Shaksper” or “Shakspe” etc.) pops up in Elizabethan records. These records are legal records regarding fines owed, land ownership, or wills as well as the occasional dedication in pamphlets and Quatro editions of his plays. But, a name, a date, and a place hardly shine insight onto a person’s life. For the most part, Shakespeare by Bill Bryson is book filled with well-drawn assumptions rather than deeply rooted facts about the playwright’s life. For example, there is actually no record of Shakespeare ever attending school, yet it would be hard to believe that someone with a great control over the English language never received any formal education. So, Bryson shows what Shakespeare’s life as a grammar school student was probably like from the subjects he probably studied (reading, writing, reciting Latin) to what discipline was probably like (Bryson writes, “A standard part of a teacher’s training…was how to give a flogging”).

    It doesn’t stop there of course. Bryson discusses how Shakespeare would have first gotten involved in both performing and writing plays. He discusses the famed Globe Theater, and how plays would have been performed there. He discusses Shakespeare’s relationship with wife, Anne Hathaway, from why they may have married and why Shakespeare only left her his “second best bed” in his will. Bryson also dives into a handful of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, although these chapters tend to read dryly compared to the chapters about Shakespeare’s lifestyle. And, no biography of Shakespeare is complete without a chapter that delves into the controversy over whether or not Shakespeare was really the author of the famous plays and sonnets. Some scholar’s declarations of who they believe to be the “real” Shakespeare may surprise you!

    Interestingly, the parts of the book that interested me the most were the parts that focused the least on Shakespeare. I enjoyed reading about the tension between the Catholics and the Protestants during Shakespeare’s life. And I found Bryson’s descriptions of the layout of London as well as city life so vivid. Both of these set the tone, the scene for Shakespeare’s life and his plays.

    My biggest complaint about this book is about the number of “five-point” vocabulary words Bryson used so frequently. I am glad I read this book on my Nook, which has a built-in dictionary. It made looking up handfuls of words every few paragraphs easy. If I owned a tangible copy of this book, I would have probably been annoyed by how often I would have to put the book down to leaf through a dictionary.

    Overall,
    I enjoyed this book, but it didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know (okay, maybe a few vocabulary words). But that’s because I’ve had the pleasure of taking two classes about Shakespeare– one in high school and one in college. It is good to know that neither of my teachers led me astray! Still, Shakespeare by Bill Bryson is worlds more interesting than the textbook excerpts I read in either of those classes. Why couldn’t my teachers assign this book instead?

  • Book Report: Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes by P.H.C. Marchesi

    Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes

    Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes
    Released:     March 2011
    Publisher: Createspace
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    ★★★☆☆
    Synopsis:     Shelby Kitt never gets lost. Shauna, his sister, never gets sick. As far as most people are concerned, the inseparable Kitt twins are odd 13-year-olds. No one, however – not even Shelby and Shauna – can guess how extraordinary they are until the Vice Consul of Miriax, a planet from another dimension, asks them to take part in a dangerous mission. From that moment on, Shelby and Shauna Kitt discover that the universe is full of Klodians, cities in jungles, giant bats, and tea with mushrooms. Most of all, they discover that it will take more than special powers for them to face – and survive – the evil that threatens the galaxy.

    My Thoughts

    P.H.C. Marchesi’s Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes took me on an adventure I did not expect. Shelby and Shauna are hand-picked by the Vice Consul of Miriax, named Lendox, to help save Earth and Miriax from total destruction at the hands of  the Klodians. Along the way, the twins receive training in a military fort, learn they have “super powers”, and explore the world of Miriax.

    The greatest aspect of this book is P.H.C. Marchesi’s excellent world building, and Miriax really can only be described as epic! It’s a planet where stick bug creatures patrol the jungles and bat-like creatures are able to communicate telepathically. The walls can grow to increase the holding capacity of buildings, and the walls have a tendency to eat left over food. Instead of choosing books to read, the books choose the reader. But, I’ll stop there because learning about the alien world is half the fun of the book!

    The book was also filled with an array of interesting characters. The young heroes all have unique gifts and “super powers”, but they also have weaknesses, which young readers can relate to. For example, Shelby has to learn how to control his quick temper, and Shauna has to learn how to overcome her shyness. Adults, who seem to be largely absent in most books meant for the younger generation, actually play an integral role in the story too. Vice Consul, Lendox, and tech-savvy Earthling, Marina, offer guidance and support for Shelby and Shauna as they tackle the Klodians and their own insecurities. The most intriguing character though, is the ever mysterious Dale. He was the most complex character in the book, and he kept me guessing all the way through. Good? Bad? Sociopath?

    I thought the only weakness of Shelby and Shauna Kitt was the pacing. It takes about half of the book for the children to make it to Miriax. And, the battle against the Klodians, which the twins spent half the book learning about and training for, occurs in only one chapter. It left me thinking That was it?

    Overall, I did enjoy this book. Despite the awkward pacing, the world building, the characters, and the twist at the end make this book a worthwhile read.Read if you’re looking for a good sci-fi read without all the overwhelming jargon or if you’re looking for adventure and epic world building!

    Won from LibraryThing’s First Reads

About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.