Use the Force Clary, oh wait, wrong series...

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

This is the second installment of the Mortal Instruments and it continues immediately after City of Bones.  In the first book Clary’s life was turned upside down when she sees things she has never seen before and she is introduced to a hidden world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders.  She learns that her father is not dead like she had been told all her life, but he is the worst villain of this new world and that the boy she has fallen head over heels for is her brother.  Her mother is in a self induced coma and nothing seems to be able to wake her.  With City of Bones, the audience learns about all sorts of Downworlders, vampires, werewolves,etc.  In City of Ashes, Alec and Isabelle Lightwood introduce Clary to the Faerie world, when they go to the queen to see if she will join the Shadowhunters to fight Valentine in his mission to destroy all Downworlders.  Of course some crazy drama takes place with the Faerie Queen that I will not go into detail.  Simon has a change of situation that turns him into a key player in the war of this new world.  And Clary finds out that she is not the average Shadowhunter but is special. 

I guess there could be spoilers to City of Bones in this blog, so if you haven’t read it, please stop here, read the book and come back!  When we meet Valentine at the end of City of Bones and Jace says “this is my father.” I thought, OMG!  That is a turn that I would have never guessed and it turned my stomach inside out for Clary.  I just kept thinking to myself, no, they can’t be brother and sister.  They want each other too much.  And then I thought, thank the Lord that they have only kissed.  Eek!

I know that this author is not perfect, I see the mistakes, but Clare has found a story that has stolen my heart.  I love the Shadowhunters and this new and exciting world.  I am engrossed to see what will happen next with Magnus, Alec, Isabelle, Jace, Clary, Simon and all
the characters.  As the story continues we meet new characters and I am engrossed in his/her story and I can’t wait to see how this new and exciting character will help or hinder what’s going to happen in this story. 

The only problem with this series is that I am having is that I am reading it too fast and it has been several months since I actually read this book and now blogging about it and I have read all of the books of the series and I can’t remember details about what I liked specifically.  Oh well, just take my advice and read this series as soon as possible.  This will be the next fan series to watch out for in the movies.  Keep Reading my friends!

But Do Roses Really Smell Like Poo Poo Poo?

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

What can I say about The Name of the Rose?  The first thought that came to my mind when this book was announced for Olive Books Book Club’s May book  was, Oh my, I don’t think I can read this one.  I have read many books over 500 pages, but when I found this book at the Library and it was very large pages with very small print and over 500 pages, I felt a little overwhelmed.  I started the book a little earlier in the month, which I usually wait until the last 2 weeks of the month in order to read books on my overflowing book case during those first 2 weeks and it usually gives me more than enough time to devote to book club.  Although this book only took me 2 weeks, I’m glad I gave myself 3 weeks before book club because the first 100 pages were overwhelming and I don’t think I would have completed it if I didn’t know that I had enough time.  Does that make sense?

How did I feel while reading this book? Every time I picked the book up, I made an audible noise between a sigh and a groan.  At first I couldn’t understand what the author was telling me.  I didn’t understand what historical background Eco was trying to convey, I had to read out loud to myself in order to remember or understand what I was reading.  I was going to give the book 100 pages to get interesting after that I was going to return my library book and forget I wasted any time reading it at all.  Luckily at page 100 I decided to keep reading.  I kept reminding myself that it is an International Bestseller, every review I read with very few exceptions, people gave this book 4 or 5 stars out of 5.  All of these people must be very intellectually astute because I felt as a well read, college graduate very stupid reading this book. 

This book was set over the course of 7 days in the winter of 1327.  Brother William of Bakersville is sent to a rich abbey in Italy along with his novice Adso of Melk.  They are to uncover believed heresy that could be taking place in the wealthy abbey, but as they arrive, William is asked to turn detective and he is distracted from his mission by a mysterious death that took place the night before.  William must collect evidence and use his intellect to solve the many mysteries that are taking place not only in the abbey walls, but also the mysterious library that no one is allowed to enter except the librarian and his assistant.  As the bodies continue to pile up during that week, William has to decode manuscripts, decipher secret symbols and learn secrets to the labyrinth of the abbey. 

Unless you want to refresh your memory on all of the Latin you know, or learn around 1000 new vocabulary words, I would say that you could just rent this movie and save yourself 2 weeks of your life reading this book.  That’s just me though.  I hope you enjoyed the blog, keep reading and let me know what you think!    

Who Can You Trust When Everyone is out for Themselves?

Lies by Michael Grant

Who is telling the truth?  Who can anyone trust?  Who is out to help the kids of the FAYZ and who is out for their own gain?  There are a lot of questions and very few answers in the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone).  It’s been months since everyone over the age of fifteen mysteriously disappeared.  When we last we saw the kids of Perdido Beach, California, the Coates kids including Caine and Diana had to join forces with the Perdido Beach kids including Sam, Edillio, and Astrid to fight the Darkness or gaiaphage.  Electricity is out and the water supply no longer works.  The food situation is a little better for the Perdido Beach kids, but the Coates kids are now starving to death.  With little choice, the Coates kids are going to find a new place to live, they’ve heard about an island.  While Caine is up to his same selfish games, strange appearances are taking place on the Beach.  People report that they have seen not one, but two kids that are supposed to be dead, walking the streets of town.  

Sources of lies are coming from all over, the Council is lying about Orsay Pettijohn, the mutant that can see other people’s dreams and what she is “prophesying.”  Sam is lying about finding Brittney, who is supposed to be dead, Orsay is standing up in front of her followers telling them to take the 15 year jump even though she has doubts of whether she believes the jump is truly the way out or not.  Caine is promising the Coates kids that he will get them food if they follow him, and he has no plan on letting them follow him to the mysterious island.  The list goes on and on and the way Grant has changing point of view characters the audience knows who is lying and why throughout the book.  With the events of the FAYZ getting worse and worse it’s hard to want to continue on with the series because the names of the following books.  Each title seems to get worse and usually at the end of one book the audience just can’t see how it can get any worse for the kids of the FAYZ, then he starts the next book and there it is, circumstances are worse than the book before. 

Astrid and Sam, the main romantic characters of the series thus far are having troubles.  It seems to me that Astrid is using Sam, if I was him, I would wonder if she loved me at all.  I think she uses his power to keep her and Little Pete safe.  Maybe I’m wrong and she does love him, but during this book I was constantly wondering where her true allegiances lie.  I’m not the only person questioning Astrid, as the reader, but also within the book, the entire town is mad at her for the choices she has been making lately. 

Gone the first book of this series was a book club choice of mine and my friend Renae and I have continued to read it without the group.  I have enjoyed this series in some ways, but in others I’m just ready for the series to end.  I will continue to read this series and I’m waiting to see where the series is taken.  I need to know how the kids get out or if they are going to get out of the bubble.  What do you think?  Have you read this series?  Do you want to? Keep reading my friends.

Peculiar Children? That Sounds Fun!

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Jacob grows up sitting on the knee of his grandfather listening to the stories of his Grandfather’s strange upbringing.  As his grandfather runs from the Germans (or what he calls the monsters) to a small island in Wales he grows up with children that are unbelievable in his grandfather’s stories.  As the book continues, a family tragedy rocks Jacob’s world and sends him searching for answers on the mysterious island of the stories he grew up listening to but didn’t always believe.  When he arrives at the bombed out house of his Grandfather’s upbringing he quickly realizes that something is not right and maybe the dwellers of the strange house have never left.  The story is an exciting mix of fiction and photography where Riggs takes us on a mind blowing adventure.  

What started off as a crazy suspenseful rollercoaster of a book, sure had a blah ending.  I enjoyed the story during its entirety until the last chapter.  The ending was anti-climatic.   I literally would squeal with anxiety and would be on the edge of my seat because I didn’t know what was going to happen next.  Then the book ended and I left feeling empty and wondering if the author rushed the ending for publishing purposes.  I’m sure this will be a series and I’m almost guaranteeing that I will continue the series, because I always do, but for what I thought was going to be a creepy story about some psycho kids, turned into bla.  Also, the timeline and space time continuum does not make sense at all.  If the author would have addressed how one time line doesn’t age while another continues and there are loops all over the earth doing the same thing, it would have been a better read, but the way Riggs doesn’t talk about the loops, leaves the audience with questions, specifically, I’m talking about the towns people.   

With my amazing problem solving skills, at the very beginning of the story I started to worry that Jacob was going to somehow go back in time and become his own grandfather.  Thankfully that was not true.  I kept thinking that the reason Jacob and his grandfather got along so well was not because he was peculiar, but because they were the same person.  That’s funny, I don’t care who you are. 
Let’s talk about the photography.  First of all in the back of the book it talks about how the photos are real and the story was written around them.  But also because they are real photos, they do not stay consistent with the characters.  For example, Emma had several pictures in the book and they are always a different girl.  So therefore, the author loses the part of the audience that needs cohesiveness throughout the story.  But in my opinion, it was neat that the author found those pictures and used them for the story. 

Would I recommend this book to my beloved readers?  That is a good question.  Did I leave the book weeping and wishing I had never read about the peculiar children? No, not at all, I guess I would give it 3 out of 5 stars, and now you decide if you want to start or continue the story. 

Hannah Baker Took Her Life, Now You Can Find Out Why

Th1rtheen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

The first thought that comes to mind as I finished this book is, how sad!  I sought this book out because of the popularity from a few years ago on the blogosphere and of course I’m always a little behind.   I knew that this book was about teenage suicide and that it wasn’t going to be a happy read, but I also had a strong drawing to this book. 

Let’s talk about what drew me to this sad story.  Simon (my husband) and I volunteer every year for Super Summer, a Baptist leadership camp in Texas.  As the years have gone on it has become alarming how many young girl students have admitted to having suicidal thoughts or have actually attempted suicide.  As the popularity of this novel came more apparent, I knew I wanted to read it.  I have actually picked it up at Books A Million several times pondering on if I should buy it or not.  Of course my cheaper side wins and I requested it from the Library.  I am so glad that I finally read this book and watched the story unfold.

 I hated how everything went wrong in Hannah Baker’s life, the connections between characters was drawn out dramatically and it kept me wanting more.  It was hard to stop reading at night and it’s been a while since I have had that “problem.”   I think that the reason for my attention being sucked into the book is because the book takes place right after Clay Jensen gets home from school and ends the very next morning.  It is a very eventful evening for Clay as he listens to 13 sides to audio cassette tapes of Hannah Baker’s voice telling each person why they are on these tapes.  Each side to a tape has a story of what that person did to Hannah that made the decision to end her life.  Of course Clay cannot think of any reason why he would be one of the people to help her decide.  As he journeys though the tapes and that fateful night, he learns more about Hannah than he did in the 3 years of high school together.  Of course he realizes at this point that it is far too late.   

Throughout the entire book, I was hoping that Hannah wasn’t actually dead, since her parents didn’t have a local funeral and no one saw her body.  I guess that technically could be true, but I don’t think it was.  My favorite reason for enjoying this book was the way Jay Asher used Clay and Hannah’s perspective.  We hear Hannah and also hear Clay and their voices are different and distinct and the way Clay interacts with Hannah’s recorded voice is heartbreaking and engaging.   

If you know or are a parent of teenagers, this is an excellent book to read.  Of course I’m warning you now, this is a sad read, I wouldn’t feel right without giving a caution, but surely you knew that a book about a girl that commits suicide is sad. 

I would love to know what you think.  Leave me a comment.  Thanks for reading!