KellyVision

193 - Mr. Toppit

Finished Mr. Toppit by Charles Elton.  I received this from the publisher at BEA.  This will be released on September 7.

Luke Hayman is the main character in his father's series of children's books, The Hayseed Chronicles.  (His literary alter ego's name is Luke Hayseed.)  These books are fairly popular--it's not Harry Potter, but people have definitely heard of them.  (His sister Rachel has no part in the books.)

When his father, Arthur, dies in a freak accident, the books start to become more popular, thanks to an American who happens upon Arthur as he's dying.

I really wanted to like this book (it's about books!) but I couldn't.  Part of the problem, I think, is the writing is very British, and I don't think I was in the right frame of mind. I think ultimately, I wanted more about the books and less about the people behind the books.

Mr. Toppit

Charles Elton

Long weekend ahead

Once I get through the rest of today (five and a half hours to go), I'm going to be off for the next five days.  I originally asked off to go to the scary movie convention, but (a) they moved it to Gettysburg and (b) my scary movie convention companion can't come, so I decided to stay in and hang out with Sam.

(It's not like I couldn't go to Gettysburg, but the 90 minute drive time means I'd probably have to get a hotel room and either way would have to get a sitter for Sam, so it'd be easier and cheaper to just stay home.)

Plus, I have to read 18 books between now and the end of the month, so I'm hoping to get through a bunch of those over the long weekend.

Mr. Toppit

Charles Elton

 

Crank

Ellen Hopkins

 

Glass

Ellen Hopkins

 

Fallout

Ellen Hopkins

(I got Fallout for review, but I need to read the first two books before I start that one.)

Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour

Rachel Shukert

 

Numb: A Novel

Sean Ferrell

I may not finish all of those, but I should be able to get through a chunk of them.  The Ellen Hopkins books are thick, but they're written in verse so that should be pretty fast-reading (although I think the subject matter will be tough).

I'm also almost finished watching the last Mad Men episode, so I'm excited to get caught up.  (But it sucks that the one Monday I'm home to watch Weeds and The Big C, Showtime won't be airing new ones.  REALLY, Showtime?  Why do you hate me?)

I may try to watch some movies, too, but we'll see.  I was going to do the double feature I've been talking about for weeks now, but I can't really afford to hang out at the movies all day.  (Maybe next week; I get paid that Friday.)

192 - Getting To Happy

Finished Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan.  I received this from the publisher at BEA.  This comes out September 7.

This is the sequel to Waiting to Exhale, but you don't necessarily need to have read that to follow this.  I did, but I think I read it right around the time I read When Stella Got Her Groove Back, so I don't remember it.  Still, I followed Getting to Happy easily.

This picks up 15 years after Waiting to Exhale and is set in 2005.  It's about what happens after the happy ending that Gloria, Savannah, Robin and Bernadine found in the first book.

There are divorces and death, new loves, old loves and, of course, friendship.  I don't want to say too much about what happens--and to which woman--because experiencing each surprise is the best part.  But suffice it to say that these women all have indomitable spirits and can overcome everything.

I loved the four women in this book (Gloria probably most of all, but they're all amazing) and I hope they come back in more books.

Getting to Happy

Terry McMillan

Year of Pop Culture - August Edition

Books:

Read:  28 (191 so far this year)

Pages Read:  8,561 (61,353 so far this year)

Bought: 15

Best:  The Gendarme, One Day, Accomplice, Stalker Girl, What Happened to Cass McBride?, The Pretty Little Liars books, Delcroix Academy, Fury, Mockingjay, Holy Ghosts, The Doctor and the Diva, Immortal Beloved, The Duff

Looking Forward To: Continuing to whittle down my pile of review copies.  (I'm in good shape for the September releases and I hope to get through a chunk of October, too.)

Movies:

Watched:  4 (65 so far this year)

Bought:  11

Best:   Chasing Amy (rewatch), remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (rewatch), 40-Year-Old Virgin (rewatch), The Other Guys, Eat Pray Love, Date Night (rewatch).  I also watched and enjoyed Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.

Looking Forward To:  My scary movie marathon, which begins in September and heads all the way through to November.

TV:

Watched:  25 episodes (341 episodes so far this year) 

Bought:  None

Best:  Mad Men.  I'm also liking Weeds and The Big C

Looking Forward To:  My shows all coming back in September.

164 - The Gendarme

Finished The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian.  This was a review copy sent to me by the publisher.  This is also an Amy Einhorn book, which I am reading as part of the Amy Einhorn Challenge.  This book comes out Thursday.

I'm just going to give you the synopsis from the back of the book so I don't accidentally spoil something.

"To those around him, Emmett Conn is an old man on the verge of senility.  A World War I veteran, he's been affected by memory loss since being injured in the war. Now, at the end of his life, he's beset by memories of events he andothers have denied or purposely forgotten.

In Emmett's dreams he's a gendarme, escorting Armenians from Turkey.  A young woman among them, Araxie, captivates and enthralls him.  She becomes the love of his life.  But then the trek ends, the war separates them.  He is injured. Seven decades later, as his grasp on the boundaries between past and present begins to break down, he sets out on a final journey, to find Araxie, and beg her forgiveness."

This is an amazing book.  I tend to avoid war stories, but this is a war story like The English Patient is a war story or like the musical Miss Saigon is a war story.  They are, of course, but they're also love stories and stories about loss and betrayal and the best and worst of humanity.

I cannot recommend this book enough. 

The Gendarme

Mark T. Mustian

155 - Paranormalcy

Finished Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.  I received this review copy from the publisher.

I know this is sort of a "duh" statement, but I'm reading a LOT of paranormal YA lately.  And while I love it dearly and desperately, a lot of them are more or less the same.  Teenage girl meets guy who's also a vampire/werewolf/faery and love and angst ensues.  And I'm totally okay with that, because the people who write these books are awesome and it's a formula I love.

I say all that to say this--Paranormalcy is different.  (While yes, there's a teenage girl and love-angst, it departs from my usual formula.)

Evie works for IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Agency), which makes her sort of like Buffy, only she arrests the vamps/werewolves/hags/shapeshifters instead of killing them.  She's got a hot pink taser she calls Tasey and her best friend's a mermaid.  Her sort-of ex is a faery and she's got feelings for a shapeshifter she arrested.  And this is in the first few chapters, well before all the REALLY interesting stuff happens.

I love Evie, I love Lend (shapeshifter) and I even love Reth (possibly sociopathic faery Evie used to date).  I love this book and I cannot wait for its sequel. 

And know who else loves it?  Becca Fitzpatrick. 

Highly recommended.

Paranormalcy

Kiersten White

 

 

181 - Radiance

Finished Radiance by Alyson Noel.  This was a review copy sent to me by the publisher.

This is the first book in a new series, which is sort of a companion series to her Immortals series.  (But more appropriate for younger readers.  So if you have a teenager who's reading about Ever, this would be completely appropriate for her younger sister.)

As readers of the Immortal series know, it pretty much opens with a car crash.  Ever, her parents and younger sister Riley and their dog, Buttercup, die in a car accident.  For much of the first book, Riley "haunts" Ever but then crosses on.

In this book, we learn what happens to Riley after she stops visiting Ever.

At first, Riley's afterlife is pretty sweet.  She lives with her parents and dog in a house and neighborhood that's identical to where they lived when they were alive.  She can manifest whatever she wants and do whatever she likes.

Unfortunately, she soon has to get a job because the afterlife isn't just hanging around, doing nothing. 

She's assigned the job of "Soul Catcher," which means she gets to return to Earth and help ghosts cross over.  Her first assignment is a boy who's been haunting a castle for hundreds of years. 

I really enjoyed this book--not sure what that says about me, since it's so clearly written for elementary and middle school kids. ;)  But it's very fun and while there are scary ghosts, I don't think it would be too scary for little kids.  (And there's also a little lesson in there about facing your fears, so that would probably help, too.)

I also think Riley is very relatable for kids.  She's smart and sarcastic, but she's also scared and overwhelmed a not-small amount of time in the book.  But, since she always overcomes it, she would probably also be a good role model.

Radiance

Alyson Noel

 

182 - Maybe This Time

Finished Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie. This was a review copy sent to me by the publisher.

Andie is engaged and her life's going really well.  Until she sees her ex-husband, who hires her to head to the middle of nowhere and take care of two children in a house that may or may not be haunted.  The kids are orphans and they've scared off three nannies already.  (Carter has a tendency to set fires and Alice is a screamer.)

This is a book that shouldn't work but does.  It's part The Philadelphia Story (in terms of Andie's relationship with past husband and future husband) and part Rebecca (creepy house, creepier housekeeper) and part Mary Poppins (hello, children! I will solve your problems!), and that sounds incredibly schizophrenic, right?  And a little ambitious for one book that's less than 350 pages?  But it works, and it all flows together quite well.

I gave it three and a half stars, because parts seemed kind of rushed.  And also because ghosts should be really scary.  (So on the plus side, if you want to read this but are concerned about being freaked out, you should be okay.)

Maybe This Time

Jennifer Crusie

 

*shudder*

I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm terrified of snakes.  Absolutely, beyond all reason terrified.

So today, I was heading back to my desk at work and saw a snake just hanging out at the top of the hallway.  So I freaked out (seriously), ran past the snake and started pleading with my coworkers to kill it.

My coworker Paul said he wouldn't kill it, but would usher it on outside.  Except it then slithered into a closet, which is locked.  I can't think about it or I'll have to go home. 

Probably just as well, really; then it would be in the parking lot, possibly lying in wait for me.

The rational part of me knows that I am being ridiculous.  It's a tiny garter snake, not a cobra.  The rest of me?  Absolutely freaking the hell out.

191 - The DUFF

Finished The DUFF by Kody Keplinger.  I received this from the publisher at BEA.  This book will come out September 7.

Bianca is sarcastic and bitchy, but she's an excellent friend.  So excellent, in fact, that she lets her two best friends drag her to the local under-21 club at least once a week so that she can watch them have a great time and make sure they don't do something stupid.  For the purposes of this discussion, something stupid = sleeping with Wesley, the hottest guy in school.  (He's also kind of a jerk.)

And then one night, he talks to her at the club.  He tells her that he likes her friends and has determined that the best way to hook up with them is to let them see him talking to her, because she's their DUFF.  (DUFF = Designated Ugly Fat Friend.) 

Bianca throws her drink in his face.

Except things in her life are kind of crappy (her mom's been out of town for ages and her dad's depressed about it).  And so she ends up kissing Wesley.  And then she ends up hooking up with Wesley.

I absolutely adored this (all too short, unfortunately) book.  Bianca is the kind of girl I'd want my daughter to be (if I had a daughter).  She's smart and funny and a good friend, plus she's a Democrat and ultimately secure with herself and her body.

There's a lot of sex in this book (well, maybe not a LOT, but it's there), which might cause some people to be a little nervous.  But on the plus side it's all safe sex.  So there's that. :)

And I think what I liked most about the book (besides Bianca and her unexpected love story) is the moral that pretty much every girl is insecure and that even Bianca's hot friends feel like they're unattactive.  I wish that went away as we got older.

Smart, fun book with an incredibly awesome, kickass heroine.  Recommended.

The DUFF: (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)

Kody Keplinger