Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner

Vaclav and Lena

Author:  Haley Tanner

Publisher:  The Dial Press

Date Published:  May 17th 2011

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

From Goodreads:

Vaclav and Lena, both the children of Russian emigres, are at the same time from radically different worlds.  While Vaclav's burgeoning love of performing magic is indulged by hard-working parents pursuing the American dream, troubled orphan Lena is caught in a domestic situation no child should suffer through.  Taken in as one of her own by Vaclav's big-hearted mother, Lena might finally be able to blossom; in the naive young magician's eyes, she is destined to be his "faithful assistant"...but after a horrific discovery, the two are ripped apart without even a goodbye.  Years later, they meet again,  But will their past once more conspire to keep them apart?

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I'm not sure what I expected from Vaclav and Lena...a love story, I guess, one that made me smile in the end.  It's not what I got.  The tone is melancholy and the story that unfolded was hard to read.  Not because it was badly written but because you want these two characters to persevere.

The beginning starts off with a young Vaclav and Lena, and sets up their friendship and dreams. You get the feel of how close they are, yet can sense something is not right with Lena.  As the story goes Lena becomes whole, we find out how much life she has already experienced, and not a good one, at a young age.  The second half you meet up with teenage Vaclav and Lena, and you get the answers that aren't there in the first half.

I enjoyed Vaclav and Lena, it was sad and the characters stay with you.  It's a short read, one I recommend.  

34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues

34 Pieces of You

Author:  Carmen Rodrigues

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Published: September 4th 2012

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

From Goodreads:

There was something about Ellie...Something dangerous.  Charismatic. Broken. Jake looked out for her.  Sarah followed her lead.  And Jess kept her distance, and kept watch.

Now Ellie's dead, and Jake, Sarah, and Jess are left to pick up the pieces.  All they have are 34 clues she left behind.  34 strips of paper hidden in a box beneath her bed.  34 secrets of a brief and painful life.

Jake, Sarah and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie, and all three have secrets of their own.  As they begin to confront the darkest truths about themselves, they will also find out what Ellie herself had been hiding all along...

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34 Pieces of You is a very somber read.  The story of Ellie is told from multiple narrators, Sarah, her best friend, Jake, her brother and Jess, Sarah's sister.  The best narrator is Jake,  I got a little more about who Ellie was from him.  But to be honest, I never really felt like I knew who Ellie was, I'm still wondering who exactly she was, and since this is a character driven novel, it was annoying.

In the beginning I was having a tough time to figure out where I was timeline wise, because it flip flops and feels like it's everywhere.  The timelines were divided by "Before January", "After November" etc., I would find that I would get confused and go back to see where I was in the previous chapter.

Despite the things I didn't like I was compelled to finish it to find out Ellie's secrets, and finished it in one day.  I did enjoy it, just not as much as I was expecting to.

Midweek Update

Hey ya'll!

What I finished reading:

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Review was posted yesterday, not gonna put a link because it's right below this post. ;)

Currently Reading:

34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues

Just started this one, only one chapter in.

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

The Winter Rose

Author:  Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher:  Harper Collins

Publication Date:  November 30th 2006

Series: 2nd Book in The Tea Rose Trilogy

Ratings:  3.5 out of 5

From Goodreads:

It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel.  And yet, in the summer of 1900, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin.  Among the reformers is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones, recently graduated from  medical school.  With the help of her influential fiance--Freddie Lytton, an up-and-coming Liberal MP--she works to shut down the area's opium dens that destroy both body and soul.  Her selfless activities better her patients' lives and bring her immense gratification, but unfortunately, they also bring her into direct conflict with East London's ruling crime lord--Sid Malone.  India is not good for business and at first, Malone wants her out.  But against all odds, India and Sid fall in love.  Different in nearly every way, they share one thing in common--they're both wounded souls.  Their love impossible and they know it, yet they cling to it desperately.  Lytton, India's fiance, will stop at nothing to marry India and gain her family's fortune.

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The Winter Rose is the second book in the Tea Rose trilogy, and follows Charles Finnegan.  Charles becomes Sid Malone, a notorious crime lord, he separates himself completely from his siblings, Fiona and Seamus.  I enjoyed The Tea Rose a bit more, but still thought the Winter Rose was a good followup.

Charlie aka Sid Malone is a really great character.  He's flawed and real.  He's definitely scarred by what happened to his family, which we learn about in book one.  Sid is a crime lord but one that helps the poor people of Whitechapel, almost like Robin Hood. He's build walls around his heart to make it easier to be Sid Malone, and refuses to acknowledge Fiona.  Fiona wants Charlie, and he left him a long time ago.  Fiona and Joe, from the Tea Rose are also a big part of the Winter Rose, and even Seamus joins in the second half of The Winter Rose.

One of the great things about The Tea Rose is the romance between Fiona and Joe, so naturally I was expecting to love the romance between Sid and India, but it actually didn't do it for me much.  Sid was great, my problem lies with India.  India is too damn perfect.  I seriously can't stand characters that are goody two shoes, she's smart, brave, independent and loved by all.  *roll eyes* Then all of a sudden she starts making stupid decisions in the second half of the book that annoy me.  But I did enjoy her interactions with her friend Ella.

First half of the book is good, then it starts going downhill a bit in the second half.  Seamus comes into play basically to set up the third book that will be about him, and I found those parts boring, so I will not be reading the third book.

Mini Reviews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Author: Jesse Andrews

Publisher:  Harry N. Adams

Publication Date:  March 1st 2012

Pages: 295

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is basically an acid trip in book form.  Told in first person, we go inside the crazy mind of Greg, and seriously Greg needs happy pills.  He's quite a character...weird, brutally honest, insecure and a pervert.  Author Jesse Andrews writes the way your head process thoughts.  You know like when your driving the same route you go everyday and your mind wanders to the most random thoughts.  Anyway, it's a entertaining read, but if you're expecting a insightful read about death, and cancer look elsewhere. 

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Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date:  August 21st 2007

Pages: 288, Hardcover

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Honestly I can't remember that much about Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, it just isn't a memorable book.  Naomi takes a fall and loses the last 4 years of her memory. In the last 4 years some major changes have occurred in her family and teenage life. None of the characters really stood out for me, and the plot was just okay.  Keep in mind that I am not a young adult so that may have something to do with my dislike of it.  

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Reading: October 2012

October 2012

1.  Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Rating: 5/5

2.  Me Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Rating: 3/5

3.  Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
Rating: 3/5

4.  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rating: 5/5

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary

Author:  Gustave Flaubert

Published: June 1st 1982 (first published January 1st 1857)

Publisher:  Bantam Classics

Spoilers galore

Madame Bovary really took me by surprise, honestly I wasn't sure how I was going to feel reading about a selfish manipulative women, what I found was a special place for Emma Bovary. This review will probably go off on tangents but I have so much to say.  Emma is a women that runs on her emotions, forget her daughter, her husband Charles, her lovers and the people from her community that are in her life, she is all about herself. All they do is deter her from the glorious life she should be living.  Her life is too small for her imagination.  She seeks excitement, adventure, and passion and finds her life is lacking in all of these aspects that mean more to her than her virtue.  Instead of laying the fault in herself she decides that it must be Charles fault.  She recites poems to him under the moonlight and gets nothing in response.  Can a girl get a little passion, please. 

First, I believe there is a little of Emma in everyone.  The basics of Emma's emotions and thoughts are genderless.  Seriously, Emma could  have easily been an Edward.  I've heard many things said about the character of Emma, and most aren't great and I can definitely see why, but her feelings aren't really foreign, are they?  Most of the things Emma is feeling towards her life, husband, children are all to some degree thoughts we have felt.  Some of us have done outrageous, wrong things to gain what we seek in our lives, and some of us have complained yet persevere through to be able to live with ourselves.  That's what it comes down to in the end.  Is it easier to live with yourself while accepting your life, even when your not happy.  Was there a nicer more compassionate way to gain happiness,  one that would not require taking advantage of people, or manipulating them? Of course there was/is. We all do it.  I guess it's just not Emma's style.   Emma's lack of responsibility money wise really does her in in the end.  Yes, it's not the men or the lack of an exciting life, but her excessive spending that is the tank that takes Emma down.  She's exhausted her ploy of using her feminine wiles to get the men in her life to come to her rescue, and  is basically left to figure out how to get out of the financial mess she's in.  And of course, Charles is completely unaware of the severity of the financial issue.  In the end though she shows how truly weak she is, when the only thing she can come up with is killing herself and leaving all the mess to Charles.  Ahh, Charles...you truly are gullible.  I can't understand my disdain for Charles, when Emma is the true culprit, but honestly I think Emma was just too much for Charles.  A man like him has no idea where to begin loving a women like Emma.  What happens to Charles when Emma dies, well, he puts Emma on this pedestal and I realized he loves a women he never ever really even knew.

Madame Bovary has become my favorite classic.  Love it.