I Successfully Completed the Summer Book Challenge!

August was a busy book month for me. Any day now, I will have my first column published, under my own name, reviewing fairy tale books. It was supposed to go up at the end of August, but the website owner suffered a hand injury, and posted that she and her website would be out of commission for awhile. I keep checking back daily to see if my first column has been posted, but alas, not yet. So I read a few fairy tales every month now to keep that going.

On top of my fairy tales, I had four books to read by midnight on August 31st to finish the Summer Book Challenge. And I did! I finally finished The Screwtape Letters at the last minute on Sunday, not an easy feat when I was exhausted from a full day of family activities in Denver.

10 points: Read a book that was written before you were born. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (209 pages, 4 stars)

15 points: Read a book that is on The New York Times' Best Sellers List when you begin reading it. Allegiant by Veronica Roth... Hey, the trilogy is on the Children's Series list. Totally counts. (526 pages, 4 stars)
 
15 points: Read a book another blogger has already read for the challenge. Insurgent by Veronica Roth... Lots of bloggers had the same idea as me and read the whole trilogy. (525 pages, 4 stars)

20 points: Read a book that was/will be adapted to film in 2014. Divergent by Veronica Roth (487 pages, 4 stars) 

With those four books, I did it! I read all the books on the original challenge, even if my selections veered off-course from my proposed reading list at the beginning of the summer.

Just a reminder that all book reviews will be posted at my new blog under my own name. Comment or email or DM me on Twitter for the link. 

 

Summer 2014 Book Challenge: Three Months Down, One Month to Go!

Post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

I did not do nearly so well with my reading in July as I did in May and in June.

This month I need to hustle and read four books if I want to complete the Summer 2014 Book Challenge. 

Here is what I did manage to read last month.


               
25 points: Read a book written by a blogger.  
Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey (201 pages, 5 stars)

25 points: Read a biography, autobiography or memoir. 
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (222 pages, 4 stars)

This month I will read the entire Divergent trilogy, which should count towards a book read by another blogger for this challenge, a book being made into a movie, and a book on the NYT bestseller list. Then I just have to find a book written before 1987 that I want to read!

I also want to take a moment to thank all of you for your overwhelmingly kind and supportive response to my three-year blogoversary and announced changes. Book reviews will be posted at my new blog, and I also live-tweeted Jesus Feminist because reading it just inspired me so much. Please continue to comment or email me or DM me on Twitter if you'd like my new blog url and personal Twitter handle.

Summer 2014 Book Challenge: Two Months Down!

It's a little surreal how fast summer is going by. But I guess when you spend most of May freaking out because your mom has cancer, and you spend all of June celebrating your birthday except for that time you ended up in the ER... time flies?

But at least I've read several good books, and I feel very confident that I will finish the challenge in time, if not early! I read three books in the month of June, including the book I just finished today. This time, I deviated slightly from my original proposed reading list that I shared at the beginning of the challenge.

10 points: Finish reading a book you couldn't finish the first time around. Maphead by Ken Jennings (276 pages, 4 stars)

15 points: Read a historical fiction book that does not take place in Europe. Lucky Us by Amy Bloom (256 pages, 4 stars, review here)

30 points: Read a pair of books with antonyms in the titles. American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics by Dan Savage (312 pages, 4 stars, review here) Note: the points are for two books and include A is for Abstinence by Kelly Oram, which I read in May.

Previous points: 35

Read my first month's summary of the Summer 2014 Book Challenge.

Total points: 90

Also, a big FELICITATIONS to the winner of Lucky Us by Amy Bloom. Michelle, you are the LUCKY winner. Check your inbox for an email from me.

What have you read lately?

Linking up with Book Notes!

Book Club Friday: Review and Giveaway of Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

So far I'm on track with my Summer Book Challenge. Every book I've read this summer has contributed to the challenge categories. Since my recap at the beginning of the month, I've read American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics, with "sex" being my chosen antonym to "abstinence" (A is for Abstinence by Kelly Oram!).  

My latest read is Lucky Us by Amy Bloom, in bookstores on July 29th. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of the novel in exchange for my honest review.*

 

Official book summary: “My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.”
So begins the story of teenage half sisters Eva and Iris in this brilliantly written, deeply moving, and fantastically funny novel by the beloved and critically acclaimed author of Away. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris’s ambitions take the sisters from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island. With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with memorable characters and unexpected turns, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn’s beauty parlors to London’s West End, these unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species.

Based on the description, I was expecting another kind of book. I thought more of the focus would be on Iris's quest for stardom. Even so, I LOVED this book. 

The characters are deeply flawed, but in a very human way. The father is selfish and aimless. Iris is ruthless in pursuit of both stardom and love. Eva is a colorless character, lacking her own personality and dreams.

But Lucky Us is, in many ways, a coming-of-age novel not just for Eva, but for Iris and even their father as well. Each character (eventually) grows and matures in their own way. 

While other reviews have not liked the use of letters to introduce new chapters, I disagree. I think that's a personal stylistic preference, but I like the mixing of letters and prose. If you tend to skim chapter titles, though, just realize that some of the letters are marked as never sent. So while we get to read the character's thoughts in the letter, the recipient never had the chance to read it. 

So far, I have avoided spoilers in my review, but I want to include a few small spoilers to explain my favorite parts of the novel. You have been warned.

ENTERING THE SPOILER ZONE

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Iris is a lesbian. Despite the book's setting against the backdrop of WWII, Iris's same-sex attraction and relationships with women are completely accepted by the few people allowed to know. Of course, it is a scandal when a photographer catches Iris having sex on the beach with a big Hollywood star who then betrays Iris and has the rising starlet blacklisted from the town. 

I won't say the most despicable or even the second-most despicable thing that Iris later does for love, but they are pretty horrible and eventually cause a long-lasting rift with Eva. 

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LEAVING THE SPOILER ZONE

Due to the generosity of Random House, one lucky reader will win a copy of Lucky Us! Sadly, this is only open to US readers. Alas. Enter using the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I received both a book and a gift card in exchange for my honest review.

Book Club Friday: American Savage

One of my successful goals of my birthday weekend was to spend a lot of time reading, preferably a book from my Summer Book Challenge. While I couldn't find my original choice of Dan Savage's The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family at my local elibrary, I was able to check out a copy of American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics.

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From Amazon: On the heels of his Emmy-winning It Gets Better campaign, columnist and provocateur Dan Savage weighs in on such diverse issues as healthcare, gun control, and marriage equality with characteristic straight talk and humor.

Dan Savage is famous--and to some, infamous--for many reasons. To name just a few: he's the author of America's leading sex advice column, the frank and expletive-filled "Savage Love;" co-founder of the Emmy Award-winning "It Gets Better Project," a YouTube campaign aimed at LGBT youth that swept the globe in 2010; and he wrote the groundbreaking 1999 memoir The Kid about adopting a son with his partner (now husband) Terry, which helped inspire same-sex couples nationwide to adopt.
 
Dan has long been an advocate for marriage equality and LGBT rights, and AMERICAN SAVAGE contains some of his most personal and reflective essays on those subjects to date.



The Beautiful: Dan's chapter on his mother and Catholicism made me cry, several times, in fact. It was raw and honest and much more emotional than I was expecting. 

The Awesome: Everything on the Bible and homophobia and bullying and "the Bible got slavery wrong, so maybe it got human sexuality wrong" is just awesome. Kudos.

The Rage-Inducing: WTF are you doing blaming biphobia on bisexual people?! Are you fucking kidding me?! Maybe instead of telling us to come out more, completely ignoring the fact that we deal with the same conservative families and religions that piss on gay and lesbian people, with the added bonus of gays and lesbians pissing on us, you should tell gay and lesbian teenagers and 20-somethings to stop calling themselves bisexual. It's not the fault of the bisexual community that some gay people use our sexual orientation as a stepping stone to admitting their own sexual orientation. And even if they DO decide to do that, we need to take people at their word when they label themselves.  

Overall, it was fast and interesting read, filled with excellent footnotes and academic citations. He backs up much of what he says with outside sources, which made this nerd very happy. 

 

*Why yes, that's an Amazon Affiliate link on the book picture 

More Cheap Ebooks from Summer Book Crush!

I bought five books during last year's event, and I really enjoyed them! I can't wait to snag a few new fluffy teen reads this summer! This is a sponsored-ish post, like last year's post, because I have a chance to win a gift card, but I am genuinely excited to buy some new books for only $0.99 each!

What would you say to over 80 titles with many undeniably-hot BOOK BOYFRIENDS that leave you wanting more? Yep, we've got you covered. The second annual SUMMER BOOK CRUSH event runs this year from June 19th through June 22nd. Don't miss it, or you will have to wait a full year for the next one!

So many ways to fall in love with just a right BOOK BOYFRIEND! And the best part? You can purchase your dream Book Boyfriend for only 99¢ each, but for a limited time only.

Book Club Friday: A is for Abstinence (Sequel to V is for Virgin)

A little more than a year ago, I first discovered indie writer Kelly Oram when I bought her book V is for Virgin. Since then, I've also read--and written glowing reviews of--The Avery Shaw Experiment, Being Jamie Baker, and More Than Jamie Baker. So when Kelly announced she'd be writing a full-length sequel to V is for Virgin, I freaked out just a little bit.



If you have not yet read V is for Virgin, click on over to Amazon
and grab yourself an e-copy. Read it, and then come back here to read my review of A is for Abstinence. Since this is a sequel, even the book's summary reveals spoilers of the original. 

So if you keep reading below, you acknowledge there are spoilers for V is for Virgin, and you won't hold me responsible for ruining any joy in reading that glorious novel for the first time.

via

From Kelly's website: Six-time Grammy Award-winning musician Kyle Hamilton has it all—money, fame, talent, good looks, and a job he loves. His only regret in life: walking away from a certain notorious virgin because he was too prideful, stubborn, and even afraid to give her the only thing she asked of him—his abstinence.

Four years and a broken heart later, Kyle realizes that sex isn’t everything, and he suddenly can’t stop thinking about the girl that got away. Virgin Val Jensen got under his skin like no one else ever has. He wasn’t ready for her then, but things are different now. He’s grown up, he’s learned a few things, and he’s finally figured out exactly what he wants, or, rather, who he wants.

Kyle Hamilton wants a do-over, and this time he’s willing to do—or not do—whatever it takes.

Y'all. Words do not do the sexiness of the make-out sessions in this book justice. Like, you could probably enjoy the book based on those scenes alone. I had feels. In my lady bits. Who knew a book about abstinence would be so stimulating?

The book begins almost a year before the epilogue in V is for Virgin, but it quickly jumps forward to that moment, when Kyle and Val reunite. 

What follows is really amazing character growth for Kyle. While he certainly showed some in the first book, this sequel allows him to grow up in a lot of ways and begin to understand Val's convictions. 

This is a fluffy young adult novel, even if the characters are now in their 20s. I hope it's not too much of a spoiler if I mention that romance blossoms between the protagonist and "the one that got away." 

As much as I loved A is for Abstinence, it wasn't perfect. Like many young adult novels, including Kelly's other books, Kyle's character has one obnoxious, disturbing trait: he assumes that he knows Val better than she knows herself, and he doesn't always believe her when she states what she wants. 

In case there are any young men reading this book and this review, please please please take this to heart. If a girl says she doesn't want to go out with you, she doesn't want to go out with you. If a girl says she doesn't want to kiss you, she doesn't want to kiss you. If you keep badgering her until she changes her mind, that doesn't necessarily mean you were right. It could just as easily mean that you scared her enough to say yes. 

Like I said, this is a troubling trend in many books aimed at teens, the insistence of writing male characters who don't actually listen to the girls they pursue. 

Other than that, I absolutely loved Kelly Oram's A is for Abstinence. I highly recommend it to anyone who was a fan of V is for Virgin. 
*Amazon Affiliate links and whatnot

Summer 2014 Book Challenge: One Month Down!

I am on track to complete this challenge by the end of the summer! I read four books in May, and all of them came from my proposed reading list that I posted at the beginning of last month.

So what have I read so far?

20 points: Read a book with “son(s),” “daughter(s)” or “child(ren)” in the title. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch (448 pages, 4 stars, review here)

10 points: Read a book from the children’s section of the library or bookstore. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (563 pages, 5 stars, review here)

5 points: Freebie! Read any book that is at least 200 pages long. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (260 pages, 5 stars)

30 points: Read a pair of books with antonyms in the titles. A is for Abstinence by Kelly Oram (204 pages, 4 stars) Note: the points are for TWO books, and I've only read the first, but I wanted to include it in my list of May books.   

Total points: Since I don't think I get to include 15 points for A is for Abstinence, not until I read a book about sex, I'm only at 35 points so far. But four books in four weeks is on track to finish out the summer with all 13 books read from my list!

What have you read lately? 

 

Book Club Friday: Bitterblue, a Young but Good Queen

It has been a long year and a half since I first reviewed Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore. This week, I finally got around to reading Bitterblue, a sequel to Graceling.

Note: Both the summary description itself and my review contain extremely mild spoilers for both Graceling and Fire, since Bitterblue should be read after them. 

via

From the author's website: Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is queen of a kingdom that was under the spell of a madman for thirty-five years. At eighteen, Bitterblue is still learning how to rule the kingdom. The influence of Leck—a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities—lives on. When Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle to walk the streets of her own city, she meets two thieves who hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace, holds the key to her heart. 

Based on the Amazon reviews, I was a little apprehensive about reading Bitterblue, but I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Graceling and Fire. 

What I like most about Cashore's writing is her ability to write such complex and distinctive characters, especially the women. Bitterblue is just as brave and intelligent as Katsa and Fire, but in a completely different way. Bitterblue is young and lonely, desperate to improve her kingdom, but overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. She soon learns that not all is as well in her kingdom as her advisers have insisted. 

While the plot might not be as active or exciting as the other novels, it is equally intriguing. It is also much darker than the other books, as Bitterblue discovers the extent of her father's evil deeds. 

Even though I own these three books in paperback, they're so good that I might invest in hardcover copies of all of them. That's how much I love these novels.

*Amazon Affiliate links, blah blah blah

Book Club Friday: The Hangman's Daughter

Last week I started the Summer 2014 Book Challenge, hosted by Megan at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life! Inspired by my reading list, I immediately started my first book, The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch.



 
From Amazon: Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play. So begins The Hangman's Daughter--the chillingly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller from German television screenwriter, Oliver Pötzsch--a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan.

I absolutely loved this book. It was quite the page-turner! Honestly, the plot was even more intriguing than the description implies. The town's hangman Jakob works together with the town's young physician Simon to find the murderer. 

The story alternates third-person POV between Jakob, Simon, the town clerk, the unknown murderer, the man who hired him, and a few other characters. 

I was able to figure out the identity of the man who hired the killer before it was confirmed in the book, but not until a few chapters before the reveal. I like a mystery that drops multiple clues. I suspected a few different characters at first, but eventually the clues came together. 

I almost wish I weren't doing the reading challenge so I could immediately start the sequels, but I'm still excited about branching out and trying new books!

 

*Amazon Affiliates link, etc etc

Book Club Friday: The Nerdy, the Quirky, and the Downright Bizarre

More than a month after my honeymoon, I'm finally recapping the last few books I read. In contrast to my other honeymoon reads, these books are all e-books. So instead of reading them at the beach or by the pool, I read these at the airport and on the plane.

And as usual, these were all priced at $3.99 or less when I bought them!

     

Collections of short stories helped me get through undergrad, when I still desperately needed fiction, but when my time was dominated by textbooks and French literature. I could read just one or two short stories and get my "fix" for a few days.

But even though I have more time to read now, I still enjoy collections of short stories. It's a great way to discover new writers.
 

The Last Girlfriend on Earth 

and Other Love Stories

From Amazon: In "Center of the Universe," God struggles to balance the demands of his career with the needs of his long-term girlfriend. In "Magical Mr. Goat," a young girl's imaginary friend yearns to become "more than friends." In "Unprotected," an unused prophylactic recalls his years spent trapped inside a teen boy's wallet. The stories in Simon Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and yet...relatable. Rich explores love's many complications-losing it, finding it, breaking it, and making it-and turns the ordinary into the absurd. With razor-sharp humor and illustrations, and just in time for Valentine's Day, Rich takes readers for an exhilarating, hilarious ride on the rollercoaster of love.

This collection of sci-fi love stories is hilarious. Like there's one story where women trade their boyfriends like sports teams trade their players. The title story is takes place in an alternate universe with only one woman left alive after some epidemic. The story about the goat, listed enough, brilliantly mocks Nice Guys. Basically, if you like wit and biting social commentary wrapped up in sci-fi and romance, then you should read The Last Girlfriend on Earth and Other Love Stories.  

We Had Stars Once

From Amazon: Join a girl discovering her true, supernatural origins. Follow a famous babysitter into space.  Journey through dystopia with a man who has lost everything, and experience the exhilaration of finally making it home. Aliens, cocky knights, and superheroes do battle with inner darkness and things that go bump in the night. From the writers of Thursday Tales comes an imaginative anthology of darkness, adventure, betrayal and mystery. From sixteen minds come sixteen tales of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. A world of worlds awaits.

On Twitter, I know that I casually mention GroupThink occasionally. It's the group blog/forum associated with the website Jezebel. Each of the Gawker Media sites has its own group blog/forum, and one of the groups self-published a collection of short stories submitted by members! Each story is very different, and some were so good, I wanted them to be expanded into a novel.

The Rosie Project

From Amazon: MEET DON TILLMAN, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a DNA expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her own quest: identifying her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Okay, so this is not a collection of short stories, but it's still nerdy and quirky, if not science fiction. The Rosie Project was AMAZING. It's narrated by Don, a professor who has Asperger's, but is completely clueless about this. There are several hints that his friends are trying to enlighten him, but he never connects the dots. He likes order in his life, but Rosie disrupts all of that... in a good way. It's really adorable how he awkwardly and cluelessly tries to figure things out between him and Rosie. 

All of these books are quick reads, and I highly recommend them!

Linking up with Book Club Friday!

*Those pictures? Amazon Affiliate links.

Summer 2014 Reading Challenge

I love to read. A lot. But I've been slacking off lately--something about planning a wedding and three wedding receptions has kept me busy.

Check out My Library for a list of all my book reviews and recommendations by genre!

So when I read Amanda's post yesterday about the books she's reading this summer, I was intrigued. Megan at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life is hosting a Summer 2014 Reading Challenge starting today!!!!

This is my proposed Reading List for the summer, although I retain the right to change my mind!

Book Club Friday: Memoirs of Paris

To contrast my regular life with my honeymoon life, just look at the number of books I've read.

On our honeymoon (including time spent flying), I read four books start-to-finish, I finished a collection of short stories, I read several chapters of a textbook, and I started another novel. In the rest of 2014 (thus far), I finished two books that I'd technically started in 2013, I read two books start-to-finish, and I finished the book started on my honeymoon.

In other words, I need to go on vacation more often because I don't have enough time to read!

We had no problem making out in front of a camera.

Back in November, Beau and I took the first half of our engagement pictures in a used bookstore. Before we left for the next location, however, we took a few minutes to browse their selection. Naturally we each bought something, but it took me a whole four months to find the time to read my book!

My eye was immediately drawn to Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton. Memoirs set in Paris? Yes, please!

From Amazon: In this remarkably honest and candid memoir, award-winning journalist and distinguished author Kati Marton narrates an impassioned and romantic story of love, loss, and life after loss. Paris is at the heart of this deeply moving account. Marton paints a vivid portrait of an adventuresome life in the stream of history. Inspirational and deeply human, Paris: A Love Story will touch every generation.

I don't normally describe women based on the men in their life, but since Marton's memoirs include detailed chapters on her late ex-husband and her late husband, they must be mentioned. Her second husband was ABC News anchor Peter Jennings. Her third husband was US diplomat Richard Holbrooke. 

A journalist's memoirs are not normally the sort of book I read, but anything about Paris lures me in. I'm SO glad I stumbled across this book at the little used bookstore. Marton seamlessly weaves back and forth between different times in her life, telling thematic stories more so than chronological ones. Yet the overall timeline of her life is easy to follow, and I'm genuinely jealous of how much of it takes place in Paris.  

Anyone who loves Paris, or Hungary (Marton's family escaped Hungary after the revolution), or journalism needs to read this book.

What have you read lately?

 

*Y'all know the drill. Two Amazon Affiliate links are embedded in this post. I get a few pennies if you shop via my links.