Month: July 2014

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 10

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Day 10 – Favorite classic book

Favourite classic book?! That would demand that I am actually one who can figure out what makes classical literature classic and that is a true problem. Just like I was once told that I didn’t read literature because Stephen King was not literature. And really, what the hell does that mean in the first place?

So I didn’t pick just one.

Favourite Classic Featuring Female Characters

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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Favourite Canadian Classic

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

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Favourite Classic Monster Novel

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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Favourite Classic Fantasy

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

The Magicians Nephew by C.S. Lewis

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Favourite Classic Non-Fiction Novel

Night by Elie Wiesel

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 9

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Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

This one section actually bought to mind two books in the same “genre” if you will. Both of which made me realize how close minded I can actually be, and I am forever grateful to one of my friends and my sister who urged me to read the first book though I don’t know where I got the second from.

1993860World War Z by Max Brooks.

This book made me cringe at first, before I even started reading it. Why on earth would I want to read a book about zombies? I don’t even overly like zombies. They’re not the best nightmarish monsters out there.

And yet, this book gripped me. It was history, fictional history of a world gone awry and yet it felt so damn real. It was written in a sort of respectful manner in regards to understanding the intelligence of the audience without a single moment dumbed down. This book demands that you feel fear, because World War Z has arrived, and you will be taken by it.

I had the pleasure to meet Max Brooks at FanExpo in Toronto, and that only solidified my love for this novel. He was so warm and personable, teasing me as he saw I had three copies to be signed (one for my brother in law and one for my sister) as well as my own. When I told him this was my first zombie book he told me he was shocked, but honoured.

Aaaand the other book in this genre that I didn’t expect to love iiiis…

My life as a white trash zombie by Diana RowlandMy Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Apparently I was a little late to the Diana Rowland party, and I’ll admit I still haven’t read her other series.

I didn’t want to like this book, I’m not sure why I was so against it but this is a cover that demands you take a look at it.

Angel Crawford did not impress me in the slightest as a character at first, not because she wasn’t well written but because there was just..something that didn’t mesh with me.

However I was soon pulled in, more by her flaws than her strengths I will admit. It was nice to like a character because she is flawed, as opposed to demanding more perfection.

It’s a quick read, but it’s fun. It’s funny and clever, at times horrific and yet I sped through this book and the following two and waited eagerly for the fourth which I received just this week. If zombies aren’t your thing, maybe this could be your gateway book, because it’s certainly wonderful.

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 8

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Day 08 – Most overrated book

I really didn’t want to answer this question because I believe that if a book gives you pleasure, and makes you feel happy that no one else should have anything to do with it.

That is why this post is not tagged with the title of either of the two books that I picked. I don’t believe in tagging your hate, and so I won’t do it here because I know these particular books do give some people joy though I do find the plot, and writing problematic but it is not my place to judge people for reading them. Because at the very least they are reading something.

And that is what makes the literary world go round and stay on an upward motion.

Twilight. Fifty Shades of Gray.

I have read them both, because I refuse to judge something based on fandom alone, having had that done to me in the past. However I just don’t understand the appeal AT ALL.

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 7

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Day 07 – Most underrated book

uglies_new-coverThis one might be one of those ones that I’m just completely missing the point. I only know one other person who has read the book and subsequently the series that I am about to mention.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Maybe it’s just that I don’t know the right people but I feel like this book and the series behind it is extremely underrated.

Maybe it’s because in the young adult world dominated by Katniss’ and Tris’ there isn’t too much room for the Tally’s of the world. Maybe this book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe the fandom just isn’t as vocal but these books deserve more attention.

 

 

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 6

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6. A book that makes you sad.

There are quite a few books that make me sad, it’s so very hard to pick just one. And to do it without spoilers.

So here are two.

the book thiefThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This book, about the childhood view of war, about Death’s view of senseless violence triggered something inside of me that touched me deeply. And the losses in the book, which I read in October, around my father’s birthday only seemed to invigorate the loss that I was still feeling over him from July 21. Each death in the novel, whether it was a minor character or not touched my heart and angered me. Yet it was one of the best books I read last year.

 

 

nightNight by Elie Wiesel

I know so many people who read this book when they were in elementary school/middle school/high school, but I didn’t come upon this book or Elie Wiesel’s story until I took a Holocaust Literature class. This was a class that actually changed my life. I can honestly tell you that. I had the right Professor for it, one who fought to honour those who had been lost in the most respectful manner he could and in doing so allowed his students to see how little we thought of something beyond ourselves.

Elie Wiesel’s heartbreaking, and true, story helped me see that as well. It is a hard read, but I feel a necessary one.

Book List 2014 · Reviews

Review: The Girl in the Road

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the girl in the roadThis wasn’t a book I was honestly sure I would like, because it’s not something that’s typically within my comfort zone. When it comes to dystopian novels I will admit I usually reach for a book that has a bit more of a familiar setting to me than the one found here in The Girl in the Road.

However with this book I found I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. The author has written the book so enriched with detail that if I tilted my head back and closed my eyes I could easily picture the setting without too many problems. The characters’ unfamiliarity with the setting only served to allow me to sink into this book further. It allowed me to empathize with these women, both of whom are strong in their own ways.

The good thing about these two characters as well, is despite the alternating chapters and the alternating timelines is that they are each written in a way that is distinctive and allows the reader to understand that they are now in the world of either Meena or Mariana. This was something I had worried about during the first few changes, as I tried to get a grasp on what was happening but was quickly able to identify each of them before their names were even mentioned.

The only thing that really took me out of the novel, which I quickly adapted to was the lack of quotation marks. However I respect the stylistic choice and by the end was not even phased by it as I whipped through the characters one by one.

This novel is recommended for anyone who likes a good dystopia with strong female characters, but also those who prefer to have their reading experience enriched by lush description of setting, characters and time line. In this novel Africa is a living, breathing character, as is India, with enough mysteries and action to keep even the least attentive reader enraptured.

Book List 2014 · Reviews

Review: An Echo in the Bone and Written in My Own Heart’s Blood Combined Review

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I hate to say this, perhaps because I am so late to the game when it comes to Diana Gabaldon and the Outlander series but I have never been so glad I waited so long to read a series.

an echo in the boneThe simple reason is this, if I had had to wait so long after An Echo in the Bone to read Written in My Own Heart’s Blood I would’ve gone insane. Seriously.

So here are my thoughts in no particular order.

 

 

 

  • Diana Gabaldon continues to handle the world her characters live in with grace and respect.
  • It is still so insanely well researched and I am so impressed by the depth of the research.
  • The suspense in these two novels in particular had me turning the pages rapidly in search of what would happen next.
  • Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser remains one of my favourite characters.
  • Jamie Fraser is still one of my favourites as well. That Bloody Man.
  • Ian appears to grow more and more with each novel which makes me happy.
  • It was refreshing to learn a little bit more about the quakers as admittedly that is not something I’m too familiar with but these two books left me wanting to learn more about that lifestyle in particular during that time in history.
  • William aggravated me in the beginning of MOBY but by the end I wanted to hear more about him.
  • I am charmed by these books and everything that occurs within them. While some people do complain about what they see as filler in the every day life chapters I actually enjoy them quite a bit because it makes everything a touch more realistic.
  • I can’t wait to read the next book, though I know I’ll have to wait four more years.

written in my own hearts bloodI have never been more happy, or moved so quickly through books of this size in a very long time. I’m enjoying it quite a lot.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about time travel, who likes fantasy, or historical fantasy or just loves being dragged into a book by a plot that just doesn’t want to let you go, and you don’t want to let go of it.

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 5

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Day 05 – A book that makes you happy

dead pull hitterThe Dead Pull Hitter by Alison Gordon

I love baseball. From spring training to post season if my team, The Toronto Blue Jays are playing I’ll be found in front of the television. When I was a little girl I dreamt of being a sports reporter, which felt to me to be a lofty goal. Yet it was Shawn Green who at the time played for the Toronto Blue Jays who told me, when I went to a Jays Kids Club even, that I could do anything.

It was Alison Gordon who enforced those words. She wrote about the Toronto Blue Jays. She wrote novels about the Toronto Titans, and these novels spurned me on.

And though I’m not a sports writer, and probably never will be, these books always bring me back to a time when I thought anything was possible.

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 4

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4. Your favourite book in your favourite series

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling

This is one of my favourite books. Period. That’s all there is to it. I can’t even speak to what it is about it. Perhaps it’s because it introduces two of the characters I had the most hope for in the entire series.

Sirius Black, enigmatic, and slightly mysterious, whose had a hard life. And Remus Lupin, loyal (perhaps to a fault), and one of those creatures that goes bump in the night.

It’s the hope in this novel that gets me, Harry’s hope for a family, Sirius’ hope for a future, Remus’ hope for a new life.

Everyone who knows me knows that because I love this book so much, that the movie was a huge disappointment to me.

 

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 3

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3. Your Favourite Series

Harry Potter by J.K Rowling

The series I didn’t really want to read. It was soo popular, everyone loved it. I was 1o or 11 and even then didn’t want to read something that everyone else was reading. I was more mature than that, I was reading Jane Eyre (and not understanding the nuances of it).

But then, in eighth grade, when I was old enough to realize that I could read what I want and damn the consequences what anyone else thought of them I picked up the first book.

It sucked me in. It sucked me in so much that even into my high school years my sister (nine years older than me) and myself, sometimes with my mum would end up at Chapters at midnight to pick up the latest book, despite our pre-order of it (I even met a future ex-bf at one).

I loved the characters, I loved the fandom, I loved the feeling of talking about theories, of imagining what would happen next. The anticipation of it all, the new friends I gained because of these books.

This was the first series I really fell for that stuck with me.

Honorable Mentions:

Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

The Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde

Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon