Likes/Dislikes Review: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Graffiti Moon

Author:  Cath Crowley

Publisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers

Publication Date:  February 14th 2012

From Goodreads:

Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city.  He's out there somewhere-spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night-and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for.  Really fall for.  Instead, Lucy's stuck at a party with ED, the guy she's managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life.  But when Ed tell hers he knows where to find Shadow, they're suddenly on an all-night search around the city.  And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

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Likes:

Shadow is a great complex character. 

Ed and Shadow being the same person...awesome.

Halfway point the story picks up to something kind of fabulous.

Love that Shadow is a graffiti artist and his best friend is a poet.  

There is some good honest deep moments about life and shifting into adult hood for the characters.

Dislikes:

The ending was lackluster.

Lucy is seriously boring.

The first half is tedious.

In Summary:

I don't understand all the gushing, really.  Graffiti Moon is a decent good read.  It doesn't warrant screaming off mountain tops for me. 

Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto

Before Ever After 

Author:  Samantha Sotto

Publisher:  Crown

Publication Date:  August 2nd 2011

From Goodreads:

Three years after her husband Max's death, Shelley feels no more adjusted to being a widow than she did that first terrible day.  That is, until the doorbell rings.  Standing on her front step is a young man who looks so much like Max; same smile, same eyes, same age, same adorable bump in his nose; he could be Max's long-lost relation.  He introduces himself as Paolo, an Italian editor of American coffee table books, and shows Shelley some childhood photos.  Paolo tells her that the man in the photos, the bearded man who Paolo says is his grandfather though he never seems to age, is Max.  Her Max.  And he is alive and well.

As outrageous as Paolo's claims seem; how could her husband be alive?  And if he is, why hasn't he looked her up?  Shelley desperately wants to know the truth.  She and Paolo jet across the globe to track Max down; if it is really Max and along the way, Shelley recounts the European package tour where they had met.  As she relives Max's stories of bloody boathouses, Shelley begins to piece together the story of who her husband was and what these new revelations mean for her "happily every after."  And as she and Paolo get closer to the truth, Shelley discovers that not all stories end where they are supposed to.

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 I started Before Ever After not sure if I was going to like it, just reading the description I knew that this could go either way.  Sadly, it didn't work out so great with me and Before Ever After.

If I had to scale it in a 1 through five, I would give it a 2.  Those two points given for Max's stories  during the tour, and the background characters.  Most of Max's stories on the tours were heartwarming and interesting.  I loved the offbeat places Max took them and then told a great story about.  These parts are the reason I was able to finish it.  Then Shelley and Max are surrounded by an awesome group of characters on the tour.  I loved them.  They were far more interesting then Max and Shelley.  We get them through Shelley's eyes as she goes back to the tour and tells Paolo how her and Max met.  They were just fun and for me, the characters I wanted to know about.  And those are the reasons Before Ever After got 2 stars from me.

I'm just going to get straight to the point about why I didn't like Before Ever After.  Shelley is a very annoying character.  I hated being in her head about everything with the exception of when she was talking about her tour mates.  I also wasn't pulled in by Max's and Shelley's romance.  I felt like I was being told they are so in love.  Paolo is a throw away character, why couldn't Shelley have saw Max on the internet.  I saw no point in him.  

Before Ever After just really didn't do it for me.   

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

The Paris Wife

Author:  Paula McLain

Publisher:  Ballantine Books

Publication Date:  February 22nd 2011

Fiction novel told in the point of view of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson about their life in Paris in the 1920's.  From what I have read Ms. Mclain really did her research, so though this is fiction she kept everything as accurate as she could. 

• I was mesmerized with the company they kept and how fascinating the conversation must have been.  The glimpses of the salon "get togethers" had me wishing I was sitting there with them.
• Hadley was definitely a outsider in a way because she was not an artist, but she seemed the only real person among a bunch on egos.  I cared for her deeply while reading The Paris Wife.
• Paula McLain did a fabulous job describing the settings, and she didn't have to use so much detail.  I love that.  
• Not a fan of Ernest Hemingway, though I've only read The Old Man and the Sea, it bored me to tears that I could never ever pick up another one of his books.  How does this pertain to The Paris Wife, it doesn't but I want to make clear that any man that could write such drivel must be a pompous ass.  So Hadley won out in the end, in my opinion. 
• Though she was only his wife for 6 years I would say she did get the best of him, and the best of times.  Can you imagine sipping cocktails with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, or more like chugging alcohol, which is how Scott and Zelda rolled.  

I really enjoyed The Paris Wife.  I thought it was well written, and never boring. I always found "the lost generation" interesting.  So many personalities trying to best each other..how it must of been exhausting yet invigorating.

Book Review: Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman

Babe in Boyland

Author:  Jody Gehrman

Publisher:  Dial

Publication Date:  February 17th 2011

From Goodreads:

When high school junior Natalie- or Dr. Aphrodite, as she calls herself when writing the relationship column for her school paper - is accused of knowing nothing about guys and giving girls bad relationship advice, she decides to investigate what guys really think and want.  But the guys in her class won't give her a straight or serious answers.  The only solution?  Disguising herself as a guy and spending a week at Underwood Academy, the private all boy boarding school in town.  There she learns a lot about guys and girls in ways she never expected- especially when she falls for her dreamy roommate, Emilio.  How can she show him she likes him without blowing her cover?

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The Plot:  

One of my favorite movies is She's the Man starring Amanda Bynes, Babe in Boyland reminded me of the movie.  Yeah, some situations are so far-fetched that they could possibly bother some, but it's all fun.  Babe in Boyland is just reading entertainment, it's not thought provoking or suppose to move you in any way.  I laughed reading the numerous situations Natalie got herself into, also cringed but in a good way during some parts.  Being a guy would be hard..seriously.

The Characters:

Natalie is a normal girl who hasn't found love but feels she knows the basics of romance and love that she could be Dr. Aphrodite, her high school's under cover love advice guru.  I really enjoyed Natalie, she is down to earth and approachable.  Her relationship with her friends are great, and I loved the sections that only involved Natalie and her two best friends conversing.  The main protagonist's crush is perfect.  Emilio is everything you would want in a guy as a teenager.  He's good looking, hard working and compassionate.  I am totally digging him.

The Setting:

Most of Babe in Boyland takes place around both Natalie's High School and the all boy's school, Underwood Academy, she attends posing as a guy.  Interesting reading about the social circles at Underwood Academy.  I figured girls are way cattier than boys, but maybe we aren't so different in those matters.  

Final Thoughts:

I would recommend reading Babe in Boyland if you are looking for a fluff read, and especially if you love the movie She's the Man.

Who the hell is that?

As this year closes I've been reflecting on this year's blogging and well, I feel like I spent most of 2011 burned out of it all.  I was definitely less driven, and my reviews took a beating because of it.  I would sit down to write a review, and would be stumped on what to write.  The only thing coming to mind would be either "It's great, read it" or "it's bad, save your money".  Slowly I got behind on reviews and couldn't muster enough care to deal with it.  I know that I don't want to stop, but I also know changes have to be made.  First thing that came to mind was the review.  I decided that i'm going to write a review however best I can get forth what I'm trying to say.  One day it may be bullets with random thoughts of why I loved something or didn't(already have that done, posting tomorrow), the next review could be a three paragraph formal review.  Just whatever..

I think I might have stifled myself into what I thought a book blogger should be than who's truly me.   I look back at some of my reviews and i'm stunned of how little of me I actually see.  WTF!  No one but my immediate family and 2 friends (that don't read and care) know about my blog, and none of them read it.  I think if some read it they wouldn't believe it is my blog.  A little about myself and my quirkiness:  I cuss like a sailor.  I dress fashionably but conservatively (my husbands calls it a classy look). Imagine a conservatively dressed women cussing like a sailor..that's me.  I also ramble shamelessly and have been known to do random dancing in odd occasions.  I am also a master bullshitter.  I can bullshit with the best of them.  On the other hand I'm moody, and I hate order.  Tell me to turn left and I will turn right, just because. I totally feel like I am censoring myself and that is something I never do, but for some reason I do here.  

I'm truly hoping 2012 is a better blogging year for me.  I'm  predicting it will be. I hope this doesn't bother anyone, but if it does O fucking well.  Can't please everyone.

Book Review: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Rules of Civility

Author:  Amor Towles

Publisher:  Viking Adult

Publication Date:  July 21st 2011

From Goodreads:  

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty five year old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York Society in search of a brighter future.

The Story opens on New Year's Eve in a Greenwich Village jazz bar, where Katey and her boardinghouse roommate Eve happen to meet Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a ready smile.  This chance encounter and its startling consequences cast Katey off her current course, but end up providing her unexpected access to the rarified offices of Conde Nast and a glittering new social circle.  Befriended in turn by a shy, principled multimillionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, and a single minded widow who is ahead of her times, katey has the chance to experience first hand the poise secured by wealth and station, but also the aspirations, envy, disloyalty, and desires that reside just below the surface.  Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her orbit, she will learn how individual choices become the means by which life crystallizes loss.

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We are close to the New Year and I have been going back through this year's reading and thinking of what will be my top 5 reads, without a doubt in my mind Rules of Civility will be in that top 5.  I loved everything about this novel.

The setting is awesome.  I've always wondered about the 30's, something always peaked my interest and I have been known to give that decade as the decade I would go back to if given a choice (that is a drunken night with friends talking question..I also once said the 20's and has said the 60's numerous of times).  I loved the out of place, hole in the wall Jazz Bars that the characters went to.  The whole vibe was great. It is New York circa late 1930's.....picture it.   With the time setting 1938, during the Great Depression we know there were two distinct classes.  People who lost everything, and people who didn't.  Towles dives deep into the two classes and we see blind ambition, manipulation, and so much more.  I was able to see the how each class thought and what motivated them to do the things they did.  Totally opposites but yet kind of the same. The characters and their journey fit together like hand and glove.  The characters are so fleshed out.  I loved them, I wanted to be them, seriously I  just wanted a part of it.  Definitely a must read!

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning

You don't Have to Say You Love Me

Author:  Sarra Manning

Publisher:  Corgi Books

Publication Date:  February 3rd 2011

From Goodreads:

Sweet, bookish Neve Slater always plays by the rules.  And the number one rule is that good-natured fat girls like her don't get guys like gorgeous, handsome William, heir to Neve's heart since university.  But William's been in LA for three years, and Neve's been slimming down re-inventing herself so that when he returns, he'll fall head over heels in love with the new, improved her.

So she's not that interested in other men.  Until her sister Celia points out that if Neve wants William to think she's an experienced love-goddess and not the fumbling, awkward girl he left behind, then she'd better get some, well, experience.

What Neve needs is someone to show her the ropes, someone like Celia's colleague Max.  Wicked, shallow, sexy Max.  And since he's such a man-slut and so not Neve's type, she certainly won't fall for him.  Because William is the man for her..right?

Somewhere between losing weight and losing her inhibitions, Neve's lost her heart- but to who?

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I loved this book so much!  It made me smile, and made me laugh.  Neve still considers herself overweight despite losing a vast amount of weight. Her confidence is low, her self esteem is lower, and all she wants is William to love her.  Because she was overweight she never dated or flirted and feels to be able to have a perfect relationship with William she needs to have a "pancake relationship."  A "pancake relationship" is just a practice relationship, you know the first pancake you make is always the throw away pancake.  It's the practice run to see if the griddle is hot enough.  I loved the analogy writer Sarra Manning came up with.  In comes Max the player who likes to play.   I really loved his character. He was playful, fun and cheeky.  Neve's and Max's pancake relationship is da bomb.  

I wish this would be made into a movie..a romantic comedy.