Benny's 2018 ROOT
Forum2018 ROOT (READ OUR OWN TOMES)
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2benuathanasia
1) The Sorceress - Scott's been hinting at the fact that Perenelle Flamel is more powerful than she seems, but this entry starts to back that up. The frenetic pace of the series is starting to catch up with me - it's difficult to keep track of events, characters, or even the books. Every blends together in a blur.
2) The Necromancer - Ugh. I wish Josh's character weren't so predictable and had more nuance. His actions near the end of this book were annoying in the sense that the character is an annoying person, but in that the writer is just...clichéd. Also, the brief respite the twins attempted at their aunt's house was entirely pointless.
3) Rump - I have no idea why this was added to my TBR pile. As soon as I added it, every time I went through the pile I just kind of went "NOPE!" I'm glad I finally said "friggit." The author has a wonderful voice for narrative, the plot is intriguing (even if re-told fairy tales has been done WAY too often), and I find myself really invested in the final pay-off.
4) Hyperbole and a Half - Hilarious and heartbreaking. I received this as a Christmas present from my mother (per my request). I inhaled it (my class may or may not have been assigned sustained silent reading so I could finish it). I then post-it noted several places and asked my mother to read it so she could understand me better. I don't know her feelings on it yet, but I'll update when she returns it...
5) Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program Grade 5 - This is literally just a collection of short works (short stories, poetry, document extracts, informational texts) and about 6 higher order thinking questions for each story. That's it. You can get that anywhere. Not to mention that most of the selected pieces are far more developmentally appropriate for high school (or college, in some cases) than even the most advanced of fifth graders.
Finally, some of the informational extracts include blatantly false information:
-The invention of paper money was placed a millennia after it was actually invented
-The piece discussing weight v. mass claims that the EARTH'S gravitational pull determines our weight on the moon (and explicitly states that the moon's gravitational pull has almost no effect on our weight on the moon...da fu--?)
-It also mistakes Archimedes water displacement discovery as a way to measure density instead of correctly identifying it as the way to measure volume.
Very shoddy (or other sh---y word) work.
6) The Art and Science of Teaching - This starts off very statistics and data heavy, making it EXTREMELY dry and difficult to read.
7) Because of Winn-Dixie - Re-reading this for work. I'd forgotten how...dreary this book is. I still like it though. At least now I get my mother's disdain for it.
8) Sisters - After reading this, I feel like I don't understand my students very well. They obsess over Minecraft and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, and Dork Diaries...such light frivolities. And then this. It was shockingly...heavy. Depressing and heartbreaking and complex. I supposed this revelation makes me feel a bit proud of them. And perhaps a bit sad for them.
9) Furthermore - The narrator has a very odd voice - very unique. Similar in style to Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett - conversational with the audience. This took me a chapter or two to get used to, but I found it exceptionally enjoyable once I did get used to it.
From the first chapter, I found myself very invested in the innumerable questions this story brought up - who, and how and why? So many mini-mysteries with answers getting parcelled out sparingly. However, those questions keep piling up on top of each other under I was crushed under their weight and I simply stopped caring. Once the adventure kicks into gear, the quality of the story plummets. It becomes a journey of the two most stubborn people in their world. Alice won't listen to anything Oliver tells her despite him proving again and again he knows what he's talking about. Oliver won't answer any of Alice's questions despite Alice proving time and time again she will &^%* everything up with her naivete. I was disappointed with such a promising book.
10) Balto of the Blue Dawn - Cute and educational. I like how they finally got a special way to erase themselves from history, but questions why they haven't done this before - they've partaken in almost every major event in history, yet only just now thought to make people forget their existence? Merlin is slackin' here.
2) The Necromancer - Ugh. I wish Josh's character weren't so predictable and had more nuance. His actions near the end of this book were annoying in the sense that the character is an annoying person, but in that the writer is just...clichéd. Also, the brief respite the twins attempted at their aunt's house was entirely pointless.
3) Rump - I have no idea why this was added to my TBR pile. As soon as I added it, every time I went through the pile I just kind of went "NOPE!" I'm glad I finally said "friggit." The author has a wonderful voice for narrative, the plot is intriguing (even if re-told fairy tales has been done WAY too often), and I find myself really invested in the final pay-off.
4) Hyperbole and a Half - Hilarious and heartbreaking. I received this as a Christmas present from my mother (per my request). I inhaled it (my class may or may not have been assigned sustained silent reading so I could finish it). I then post-it noted several places and asked my mother to read it so she could understand me better. I don't know her feelings on it yet, but I'll update when she returns it...
5) Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program Grade 5 - This is literally just a collection of short works (short stories, poetry, document extracts, informational texts) and about 6 higher order thinking questions for each story. That's it. You can get that anywhere. Not to mention that most of the selected pieces are far more developmentally appropriate for high school (or college, in some cases) than even the most advanced of fifth graders.
Finally, some of the informational extracts include blatantly false information:
-The invention of paper money was placed a millennia after it was actually invented
-The piece discussing weight v. mass claims that the EARTH'S gravitational pull determines our weight on the moon (and explicitly states that the moon's gravitational pull has almost no effect on our weight on the moon...da fu--?)
-It also mistakes Archimedes water displacement discovery as a way to measure density instead of correctly identifying it as the way to measure volume.
Very shoddy (or other sh---y word) work.
6) The Art and Science of Teaching - This starts off very statistics and data heavy, making it EXTREMELY dry and difficult to read.
7) Because of Winn-Dixie - Re-reading this for work. I'd forgotten how...dreary this book is. I still like it though. At least now I get my mother's disdain for it.
8) Sisters - After reading this, I feel like I don't understand my students very well. They obsess over Minecraft and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, and Dork Diaries...such light frivolities. And then this. It was shockingly...heavy. Depressing and heartbreaking and complex. I supposed this revelation makes me feel a bit proud of them. And perhaps a bit sad for them.
9) Furthermore - The narrator has a very odd voice - very unique. Similar in style to Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett - conversational with the audience. This took me a chapter or two to get used to, but I found it exceptionally enjoyable once I did get used to it.
From the first chapter, I found myself very invested in the innumerable questions this story brought up - who, and how and why? So many mini-mysteries with answers getting parcelled out sparingly. However, those questions keep piling up on top of each other under I was crushed under their weight and I simply stopped caring. Once the adventure kicks into gear, the quality of the story plummets. It becomes a journey of the two most stubborn people in their world. Alice won't listen to anything Oliver tells her despite him proving again and again he knows what he's talking about. Oliver won't answer any of Alice's questions despite Alice proving time and time again she will &^%* everything up with her naivete. I was disappointed with such a promising book.
10) Balto of the Blue Dawn - Cute and educational. I like how they finally got a special way to erase themselves from history, but questions why they haven't done this before - they've partaken in almost every major event in history, yet only just now thought to make people forget their existence? Merlin is slackin' here.
5rabbitprincess
Welcome back and have a great reading year!
6readingtangent
Good luck with your 2018 goals!
7floremolla
Welcome back. Enjoy ROOTing through 2018!
9Familyhistorian
Happy ROOTing in 2018!
10benuathanasia
11) The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye - This would be pretty good if it were just a book. But it's not. It's part of the Millennium series. And as such, it feels like mediocre fanfiction. Thankfully, Lagercrantz didn't really expand on Salander's background again since the last time he did that it almost completely missed her personality. However, the reason we don't get much Salander background is because we don't get much Salander. She and Blomkvist were secondary characters in their own series. This book focused on the holy uninteresting twins - Leo and Dan - and the nature v nurture debate while buying into the Islam = bad, Muslim = terrorist BS that permeates thrillers.
12) The Warlock - Great twist at the very end. I can't wait to see how that fits in with everything we've been told so far, without creating a plot hole. Speaking of which, in the first (second?) book, Scathach tells someone that she'd been told she would die in a desert - which is why she always lives on the coast. Every other book after that, she claims she was told she'd die in an "exotic location." Kinda annoying how they re-wrote history without going back and fixing it. The twist with Aunt Agnes was predictable and Josh is SUCH a cliche it's not even funny. Really glad I'm coming to the end of this series.
13) Three Cups of Tea - The first few chapters are going really slow. Yeah, yeah, yeah...we know Greg Mortenson is an amazing person that everyone loves and has lots of gumption. We don't need a resume showing off as a character witness. Get to the actual story!
Update: Ok, it was much of the same throughout the book. Mortenson showing off how spartan he can live while doing everything selflessly for others, little character development for the children he's doing all of this for, the idea of actually getting teachers for the schools is entirely glossed over (the book is so damn fixated on the logistics of the buildings).
14) Billy the Kid and the Vampyres of Vegas - This was substantially more about Scathach than it was about Billy, which made it significantly better. It covers a little bit of the falling out between Scathach and her sister that's mentioned in the main series, but it doesn't really offer many more details than what we got in the story-proper. Also, there were almost no vampyres in this. Little was about Billy, almost no vampyres, and the Scathach story that we *do* get adds nothing to her personality or background. It's kinda like bait and switch.
15) Journey to the River Sea - I liked this book. It pretended to be a slow burn, hinting at twists that would normally be revealed during the climax. However, unlike most children's books, it didn't follow a standard "story map" - it had an unusual amount of peaks, rises, and falls.
16) Designing Gifted Education Programs and Services - First impression: Not particularly readable. It isn't something you can just sit down with and read through like First Days of School, When Kids Can't Read, or Teach Like a Champion; I had to chunk it out because it was just saying way too much with way too little succinctness. It felt like every thought that came through the author's head needed a section (if not a chapter) to justify it. It offers up plenty of facts and figures, appears fairly well researched, and the author is definitely an authority on what he's discussing, it's just not something I'd ever recommend to a colleague because it feels almost like punishment reading through it.
17) Ghosts - Beautiful. This is Telgemeier's best work yet! It's just sad that it'll probably never get the recognition it fully deserves (a wider audience and maybe a movie) because of Pixar's Coco.
18) The Death of Joan of Arc - This was told from a soldier's perspective on the day of Joan d'Arc's assassination/execution. It was very abrupt, but does a pretty good job showcasing Scathach's badassery. Like the other accompaniment story (Billy the Kid and the Vampyres of Vegas) the titular character is only a mcguffin - Scathach is the focus. Fine by me, because she's my favorite character, but still kind of annoying.
19) The Crown of Ptolemy - It was of middling quality until the Kanes showed up. Don't get me wrong, I love Percy and Annabeth, but mostly for their banter and investigative skills - not their fight scenes. I want me some Kanes when it comes to epic battles.
20) Revolting Rhymes - Wow. No. Just no.
Rated as being for ages 6-8 but, aside from the questionable pictures, calling Cinderella a "slut" is super inappropriate.
12) The Warlock - Great twist at the very end. I can't wait to see how that fits in with everything we've been told so far, without creating a plot hole. Speaking of which, in the first (second?) book, Scathach tells someone that she'd been told she would die in a desert - which is why she always lives on the coast. Every other book after that, she claims she was told she'd die in an "exotic location." Kinda annoying how they re-wrote history without going back and fixing it. The twist with Aunt Agnes was predictable and Josh is SUCH a cliche it's not even funny. Really glad I'm coming to the end of this series.
13) Three Cups of Tea - The first few chapters are going really slow. Yeah, yeah, yeah...we know Greg Mortenson is an amazing person that everyone loves and has lots of gumption. We don't need a resume showing off as a character witness. Get to the actual story!
Update: Ok, it was much of the same throughout the book. Mortenson showing off how spartan he can live while doing everything selflessly for others, little character development for the children he's doing all of this for, the idea of actually getting teachers for the schools is entirely glossed over (the book is so damn fixated on the logistics of the buildings).
14) Billy the Kid and the Vampyres of Vegas - This was substantially more about Scathach than it was about Billy, which made it significantly better. It covers a little bit of the falling out between Scathach and her sister that's mentioned in the main series, but it doesn't really offer many more details than what we got in the story-proper. Also, there were almost no vampyres in this. Little was about Billy, almost no vampyres, and the Scathach story that we *do* get adds nothing to her personality or background. It's kinda like bait and switch.
15) Journey to the River Sea - I liked this book. It pretended to be a slow burn, hinting at twists that would normally be revealed during the climax. However, unlike most children's books, it didn't follow a standard "story map" - it had an unusual amount of peaks, rises, and falls.
16) Designing Gifted Education Programs and Services - First impression: Not particularly readable. It isn't something you can just sit down with and read through like First Days of School, When Kids Can't Read, or Teach Like a Champion; I had to chunk it out because it was just saying way too much with way too little succinctness. It felt like every thought that came through the author's head needed a section (if not a chapter) to justify it. It offers up plenty of facts and figures, appears fairly well researched, and the author is definitely an authority on what he's discussing, it's just not something I'd ever recommend to a colleague because it feels almost like punishment reading through it.
17) Ghosts - Beautiful. This is Telgemeier's best work yet! It's just sad that it'll probably never get the recognition it fully deserves (a wider audience and maybe a movie) because of Pixar's Coco.
18) The Death of Joan of Arc - This was told from a soldier's perspective on the day of Joan d'Arc's assassination/execution. It was very abrupt, but does a pretty good job showcasing Scathach's badassery. Like the other accompaniment story (Billy the Kid and the Vampyres of Vegas) the titular character is only a mcguffin - Scathach is the focus. Fine by me, because she's my favorite character, but still kind of annoying.
19) The Crown of Ptolemy - It was of middling quality until the Kanes showed up. Don't get me wrong, I love Percy and Annabeth, but mostly for their banter and investigative skills - not their fight scenes. I want me some Kanes when it comes to epic battles.
20) Revolting Rhymes - Wow. No. Just no.
Rated as being for ages 6-8 but, aside from the questionable pictures, calling Cinderella a "slut" is super inappropriate.
12benuathanasia
There are a few series I'd like to polish off. I'd love to make some more progress on the BBC Top 100 list. Quantity-wise, I'd like to bulk up my physical book reading and stop relying so heavily on audiobooks.
Oh! And all the SantaThing books! So many SantaThing books to read!!!
Oh! And all the SantaThing books! So many SantaThing books to read!!!
13benuathanasia
21) Challenger Deep - A slow start, especially if you don't know what it's about. It became rather fascinating, but I could still do without the pirate (delusion? daydream? side-story?). It does nothing to add to my understanding of Caden's psychology - yeah, yeah, yeah , I get it, it's representative and the ship's crew are the people at the asylum, it just - distracted - from the story.
22) Amulet - My students are obsessed with this series, so I figured I'd give it a try. The first one is a bit rushed, but doesn't particularly lead anywhere.
23) Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go - Hopefully the real second graders reading this are a bit brighter than the ones in the book, but experience begs to differ. It's a cute story, if not infuriating. While it's obvious the kids were rubbing their hands because they had just washed them (and not because they'd just passed through the chill of a ghost), we never learn what the puff of air was - I really doubt you'd be getting *steam* from a second grade bathroom.
24) The Vampire's Assistant - R.V. was a needlessly slapstick character (especially the scene with him and the wolfman), but the buildup of the actual plot was pretty decent.
25) The Dead and the Gone - The characters this one followed ranged to painfully boring (Alex) to painfully annoying (Bree). This particular entry in the series added no new information. Aside from a tidal wave we never actually see, Alex experiences the exact same things Miranda went through (plus he continues school for a while longer than she did). I wish I'd seen all the over reviews that warned readers to skip this one.
26) Nowhere to Run - Ok, the tension in this book was a bit too high for me. It touched on the closest thing I have to a phobia - public humiliation. And their public humiliation was off the charts.
I felt that in this book Dan seems to have regressed as far as his maturity goes. He was just *really* babyish for the first half of the book.
27) Yellow Brick War - So...I feel almost like I missed a book or something. This referenced many things I had no recollection of. Not sure if that says more about my attention span or the memorability of the book. That being said, the developments back in Kansas felt...abrupt and unnatural. I don't feel Amy has shown enough evidence of maturing to warrant her behavior in Kansas. Also, the introduction of a newer, bigger, badder Big Bad sucked a lot of the interest out of this book. As long as the book focuses on the core characters that EVERYONE knows, it's pretty fun(ish). Digging into the other Oz stories that few people have read adds a bit of triviastic interest, but otherwise alienates those of us really only interested in the Common Knowledge Oz.
28) Isle of the Lost - Wow. Just wow. Trite plot, cliched characters, horrible writing, and horrific editing. If you were to take the movies, divide by twelve, and then subtract the music you have something approaching the sheer cringiness of this book.
29) Paradise Lost - The parts I understood were lovely, lol.
30) Girl, Wash Your Face - This was lent to me (foisted upon me?) by a coworker. It has lots of great advise interspersed with Hollis's saccharine-sweet, cloying personality. "Tee-hee, I was so fat!" "My gosh, I only worked 16 hours a day - I was so lazy." I want to punch her obnoxious face.
22) Amulet - My students are obsessed with this series, so I figured I'd give it a try. The first one is a bit rushed, but doesn't particularly lead anywhere.
23) Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go - Hopefully the real second graders reading this are a bit brighter than the ones in the book, but experience begs to differ. It's a cute story, if not infuriating. While it's obvious the kids were rubbing their hands because they had just washed them (and not because they'd just passed through the chill of a ghost), we never learn what the puff of air was - I really doubt you'd be getting *steam* from a second grade bathroom.
24) The Vampire's Assistant - R.V. was a needlessly slapstick character (especially the scene with him and the wolfman), but the buildup of the actual plot was pretty decent.
25) The Dead and the Gone - The characters this one followed ranged to painfully boring (Alex) to painfully annoying (Bree). This particular entry in the series added no new information. Aside from a tidal wave we never actually see, Alex experiences the exact same things Miranda went through (plus he continues school for a while longer than she did). I wish I'd seen all the over reviews that warned readers to skip this one.
26) Nowhere to Run - Ok, the tension in this book was a bit too high for me. It touched on the closest thing I have to a phobia - public humiliation. And their public humiliation was off the charts.
I felt that in this book Dan seems to have regressed as far as his maturity goes. He was just *really* babyish for the first half of the book.
27) Yellow Brick War - So...I feel almost like I missed a book or something. This referenced many things I had no recollection of. Not sure if that says more about my attention span or the memorability of the book. That being said, the developments back in Kansas felt...abrupt and unnatural. I don't feel Amy has shown enough evidence of maturing to warrant her behavior in Kansas. Also, the introduction of a newer, bigger, badder Big Bad sucked a lot of the interest out of this book. As long as the book focuses on the core characters that EVERYONE knows, it's pretty fun(ish). Digging into the other Oz stories that few people have read adds a bit of triviastic interest, but otherwise alienates those of us really only interested in the Common Knowledge Oz.
28) Isle of the Lost - Wow. Just wow. Trite plot, cliched characters, horrible writing, and horrific editing. If you were to take the movies, divide by twelve, and then subtract the music you have something approaching the sheer cringiness of this book.
29) Paradise Lost - The parts I understood were lovely, lol.
30) Girl, Wash Your Face - This was lent to me (foisted upon me?) by a coworker. It has lots of great advise interspersed with Hollis's saccharine-sweet, cloying personality. "Tee-hee, I was so fat!" "My gosh, I only worked 16 hours a day - I was so lazy." I want to punch her obnoxious face.
14benuathanasia
31) Scarlet - Why, why, WHY does every single heroine in YA lit need a guy? A guy to back her up, a guy for her to pair up with, a guy to lead her, a guy to save her? I thought this was supposed to be offering up NEW twists in classic fairy tales. So fucking lame.
32) End of Oz - At first, I was very satisfied by the ending of this. There are quite a few YA series out there that try to preserve the innocence of the heroine by taking self-determination out of their hands and disallowing them to confront/kill the big bad. This allowed Amy to retain her (relative) innocence WITHOUT taking Dorothy's defeat away from her. Awesomesauce! And then in the great will-they/won't-they relationship BS with her and Nox she made the anti-relationship choice (another first for YA!!!)...and then everything with that was thrown out the window. And in he major Oz=Home/Kansas=Home debate, Amy made the unexpected, less fantasy choice and it was great...until, once again, the great writer of words decided "You know what? Fuck it. Amy gets everything. She gets her mom AND Nox. She get Kansas AND Oz." Fuck that. There need to be REAL choices and REAL consequences to choices. Yeah, you get your happy ending, perfectly wrapped up with the pretty little bow, but it's NOT satisfying. It's lame and masturbatory.
33) 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - What a friggin' snoozefest full of tautologies, mis-quoted quotes by famous people, and the most painfully boring, rambling anecdotes.
34) The Complete Big Nate: #1 - Well...this is...a thing. It's like Garfield for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid crowd. A celebration of mediocrity and mundanity. I think my students enjoy this because so little attention span is required that - during the rare occasions you might laugh - the whole joke including setup and punchline, would have only taken perhaps five second of reading. No need to follow any plot.
35) Building a Better Teacher - Disappointing. It spends hours (I read the audiobook) building up a particular education style as being the end-all be-all in educational perfection, only to tear it apart at the last moment without offering too much on how to improve upon it. The Japanese style/culture of education is the only one that didn't get this treatment, but there wasn't much to model off of.
36) Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse - UUUUGH! *headdesk* SO DERIVATIVE!!! We've got all the Star Wars Dagobah training sequences; the more you use the magic the more it controls you from about two dozen different fantasy series; mecha battles; a chosen one prophecy...UGH!!!
37) Turtles all the Way Down - Significantly better than Looking for Alaska (the other John Green book that I happened to be reading at the same time). The characters are more compelling, the plot is riveting, the insight into OCD is fairly enlightening and brilliant.
38) Looking for Alaska - It's a good story, don't get me wrong. I just don't get why it's so overwhelmingly popular. It doesn't seem to offer anything to the YA genre that hasn't been done thousands of times before (in many cases by more talented authors - sorry, John. I love all your shows, but your writing? Meh...)
39) Darker - Holy. Shit.
If you think Christian is psychotic, violent, angry, and controlling in the main trilogy, just WAIT until you get a first-row pass to his inner thoughts. E. L. James obviously knows NOTHING about human nature, because someone as extremely broken (mentally) as Christian will NOT be made better by the a savior woman nor by the child they have at the end of book three. Fuck E. L. James for unleashing this grossly unhealthy "romance" on the world.
40) The History of English Literature - This offers excellent insight into the authors it DOES cover, but SOOOO much is missing (in favor of garbage no one has ever heard of).
No monastic nuns writing from their cloisters in medieval England?
Arthur Conan Doyle presented as a footnote?
NO AGATHA CHRISTIE??
A brief mention of the arrival of children's lit with Robinson Crusoe, but no A. A. Milne? Woefully incomplete.
32) End of Oz - At first, I was very satisfied by the ending of this. There are quite a few YA series out there that try to preserve the innocence of the heroine by taking self-determination out of their hands and disallowing them to confront/kill the big bad. This allowed Amy to retain her (relative) innocence WITHOUT taking Dorothy's defeat away from her. Awesomesauce! And then in the great will-they/won't-they relationship BS with her and Nox she made the anti-relationship choice (another first for YA!!!)...and then everything with that was thrown out the window. And in he major Oz=Home/Kansas=Home debate, Amy made the unexpected, less fantasy choice and it was great...until, once again, the great writer of words decided "You know what? Fuck it. Amy gets everything. She gets her mom AND Nox. She get Kansas AND Oz." Fuck that. There need to be REAL choices and REAL consequences to choices. Yeah, you get your happy ending, perfectly wrapped up with the pretty little bow, but it's NOT satisfying. It's lame and masturbatory.
33) 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - What a friggin' snoozefest full of tautologies, mis-quoted quotes by famous people, and the most painfully boring, rambling anecdotes.
34) The Complete Big Nate: #1 - Well...this is...a thing. It's like Garfield for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid crowd. A celebration of mediocrity and mundanity. I think my students enjoy this because so little attention span is required that - during the rare occasions you might laugh - the whole joke including setup and punchline, would have only taken perhaps five second of reading. No need to follow any plot.
35) Building a Better Teacher - Disappointing. It spends hours (I read the audiobook) building up a particular education style as being the end-all be-all in educational perfection, only to tear it apart at the last moment without offering too much on how to improve upon it. The Japanese style/culture of education is the only one that didn't get this treatment, but there wasn't much to model off of.
36) Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse - UUUUGH! *headdesk* SO DERIVATIVE!!! We've got all the Star Wars Dagobah training sequences; the more you use the magic the more it controls you from about two dozen different fantasy series; mecha battles; a chosen one prophecy...UGH!!!
37) Turtles all the Way Down - Significantly better than Looking for Alaska (the other John Green book that I happened to be reading at the same time). The characters are more compelling, the plot is riveting, the insight into OCD is fairly enlightening and brilliant.
38) Looking for Alaska - It's a good story, don't get me wrong. I just don't get why it's so overwhelmingly popular. It doesn't seem to offer anything to the YA genre that hasn't been done thousands of times before (in many cases by more talented authors - sorry, John. I love all your shows, but your writing? Meh...)
39) Darker - Holy. Shit.
If you think Christian is psychotic, violent, angry, and controlling in the main trilogy, just WAIT until you get a first-row pass to his inner thoughts. E. L. James obviously knows NOTHING about human nature, because someone as extremely broken (mentally) as Christian will NOT be made better by the a savior woman nor by the child they have at the end of book three. Fuck E. L. James for unleashing this grossly unhealthy "romance" on the world.
40) The History of English Literature - This offers excellent insight into the authors it DOES cover, but SOOOO much is missing (in favor of garbage no one has ever heard of).
No monastic nuns writing from their cloisters in medieval England?
Arthur Conan Doyle presented as a footnote?
NO AGATHA CHRISTIE??
A brief mention of the arrival of children's lit with Robinson Crusoe, but no A. A. Milne? Woefully incomplete.
15benuathanasia
41) Alex and Me - It's interesting enough, but Pepperberg seems really detached and unfeeling. I get that she was trying to maintain academic and scientific distance from the experiments, but it's obvious from her own observations and videos I've seen of her with Alex (and later the other birds) that they really needed affection and love. As her own research proved, they're highly intelligent creatures (as well as being extremely sociable) but she deprived them of the love they need. It just seems so cruel.
42) Amulet 3: The Cloud Searchers - Meh. We've seen all this before. Nothing special. I think the artwork is more of a draw in this series than the story itself.
43) Auggie and Me -
Pluto - What a whiny, obnoxious, little...*clears throat*
Yikes. I'm glad to see a modicum of growth in this character, but he wasn't appealing in any way and his story was only moderately interesting.
Shingaling - I really wish this story actually had anything to do with Auggie, because - aside from the compete lack of him - it was interesting.
Julian - What a little ****head. I'm not *entirely* certain this whiny little wimp ever fully learned his lesson, but it was still interesting to see him grow.
44) Have a New Teenager by Friday - I'm exceptionally disappointed in this book.
It's mostly good/sound common sense advice, but it's pepper and salted with so much sexism, gross generalizations, and contradictions that it's hard to take any of it seriously.
Dr. Leman has such firm views on what a wife does versus what a husband does, what a teenage girl does versus what a teenage boy does that it feels like he hasn't actually worked with *actual* teenagers in decades.
He's a proponent of abstinence only and seems to parade teenage sex or *gasp* using "the marijuana" as the worst sins teens can commit. It reads like it was written in the 1930s.
I literally burst out in a honking laugh when he started bringing up the thoroughly discredited/debunked birth order theory. And then, lo and behold, I found out he's a the shyster who CAME UP WITH THAT bunk pseudoscience. What a quack!
45) Amulet 4: The Last Council - Forgettable.
46) One of Us is Lying - Wow. Just wow. I was infuriated with this book because of how blatantly obvious the ending was. I was...off. Not by much, but enough for my assessment of the book to completely change. That being said, the plot-flow was the ONLY part that ever gave me pause on this book. The four main characters were fascinating, their growth and regression was brilliantly handled, and the tension build-up was almost physically painful (anxiety attack, anyone?). I would LOVE to see this on the big screen someday (edit: Damn! Apparently it's getting a TV series!). No spoilers here, but this is the YA response to Gone Girl.
47) Gone Girl - Frustrating. It really is well written and compelling, but the sheer unlikability of the characters made it painful to slog through. If they didn't kill each other *I'D* volunteer to do it.
48) Amulet 5: Prince of the Elves - Kinda predictable, but at least it's starting to push the series forward.
49) Amulet 6: Escape from Lucien - Things are getting worse for our heroes as the books develop nuance.
50) Amulet 7: Firelight - I hate that it left off like this. It has a major tonal shift (that shockingly isn't jarring or unpleasant), scene changes, and a tantalizing promise of things to come. Evil. Evil I tells ya...
42) Amulet 3: The Cloud Searchers - Meh. We've seen all this before. Nothing special. I think the artwork is more of a draw in this series than the story itself.
43) Auggie and Me -
Pluto - What a whiny, obnoxious, little...*clears throat*
Yikes. I'm glad to see a modicum of growth in this character, but he wasn't appealing in any way and his story was only moderately interesting.
Shingaling - I really wish this story actually had anything to do with Auggie, because - aside from the compete lack of him - it was interesting.
Julian - What a little ****head. I'm not *entirely* certain this whiny little wimp ever fully learned his lesson, but it was still interesting to see him grow.
44) Have a New Teenager by Friday - I'm exceptionally disappointed in this book.
It's mostly good/sound common sense advice, but it's pepper and salted with so much sexism, gross generalizations, and contradictions that it's hard to take any of it seriously.
Dr. Leman has such firm views on what a wife does versus what a husband does, what a teenage girl does versus what a teenage boy does that it feels like he hasn't actually worked with *actual* teenagers in decades.
He's a proponent of abstinence only and seems to parade teenage sex or *gasp* using "the marijuana" as the worst sins teens can commit. It reads like it was written in the 1930s.
I literally burst out in a honking laugh when he started bringing up the thoroughly discredited/debunked birth order theory. And then, lo and behold, I found out he's a the shyster who CAME UP WITH THAT bunk pseudoscience. What a quack!
45) Amulet 4: The Last Council - Forgettable.
46) One of Us is Lying - Wow. Just wow. I was infuriated with this book because of how blatantly obvious the ending was. I was...off. Not by much, but enough for my assessment of the book to completely change. That being said, the plot-flow was the ONLY part that ever gave me pause on this book. The four main characters were fascinating, their growth and regression was brilliantly handled, and the tension build-up was almost physically painful (anxiety attack, anyone?). I would LOVE to see this on the big screen someday (edit: Damn! Apparently it's getting a TV series!). No spoilers here, but this is the YA response to Gone Girl.
47) Gone Girl - Frustrating. It really is well written and compelling, but the sheer unlikability of the characters made it painful to slog through. If they didn't kill each other *I'D* volunteer to do it.
48) Amulet 5: Prince of the Elves - Kinda predictable, but at least it's starting to push the series forward.
49) Amulet 6: Escape from Lucien - Things are getting worse for our heroes as the books develop nuance.
50) Amulet 7: Firelight - I hate that it left off like this. It has a major tonal shift (that shockingly isn't jarring or unpleasant), scene changes, and a tantalizing promise of things to come. Evil. Evil I tells ya...
16benuathanasia
51) Hatchet - Brilliant story that every kid should read. Ideal for boys, but not unpleasant for girls.
52) The Help - Wow. Just wow. I came into this knowing it was a period piece about black house servants, civil rights, and a little about the infamous pie.
I didn't realize how brilliant this was going to be with amazing and diverse characters.
53) Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible - What an adorable twist on the princess genre! I love that it doesn't just subvert the damsel in distress trope, but goes out of its way to trample many other fairy-tale tropes along the way.
54) I Survived the Joplin Tornado - Wow. This is TERRIBLY written. It reminds me of those penny-a-page crankouts during the early 90s (think the books that came with American Girl Dolls). The way it shoehorns in trivia about tornadoes and storm is clunky. It's embarrassing.
55) The Wishing Spell - As a fan of Chris Colfer (as an actor and a person), I was disappointed at how...trite this was. It really doesn't bring much of anything new to *any* genre. In fact, much of it seems ripped directly from the movie The 10th Kingdom.
56) Renegades - Holy. Shit.
I hate myself for this. Generally, I "discover" book series when they're on the third volume (or more) so I have a bit of cushioning to get me up to date. This is the first time I've entered on the ground floor and that pisses me off soooo much. I don't know if I'll be able to wait for the second book. This was just too good.
57) I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 - I liked this book, but wish it had been handled differently. Little of it is actually about Gettysburg. I would have liked if the author had separated this into two separate books - one following the main characters focusing on "I Survived the Underground Railroad" and one that follows someone actually IN the battle of Gettysburg (using the title of this book).
58) I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871 - Meh. The sappy "they all lived happily ever after" ending of this one annoyed me.
59) I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 - I like when Tarshis gives the characters multiple conflicts to deal with and I feel she balanced the multiple plot lines nicely in this book. My only qualm was a character mentioning that they smelled the gas leaks. Natural gas didn't start getting odorized in the US until around the 1920s and it wasn't widespread until the 1930s (after a school exploded in a natural gas disaster that killed three hundred and injured hundreds more).
60) I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 - Yet another "they all lived happily ever after" volume of I Survived. One of these days I'd love for Tarshis to acknowledge that PEOPLE DIE. Not the main character of course, but secondary characters.
52) The Help - Wow. Just wow. I came into this knowing it was a period piece about black house servants, civil rights, and a little about the infamous pie.
I didn't realize how brilliant this was going to be with amazing and diverse characters.
53) Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible - What an adorable twist on the princess genre! I love that it doesn't just subvert the damsel in distress trope, but goes out of its way to trample many other fairy-tale tropes along the way.
54) I Survived the Joplin Tornado - Wow. This is TERRIBLY written. It reminds me of those penny-a-page crankouts during the early 90s (think the books that came with American Girl Dolls). The way it shoehorns in trivia about tornadoes and storm is clunky. It's embarrassing.
55) The Wishing Spell - As a fan of Chris Colfer (as an actor and a person), I was disappointed at how...trite this was. It really doesn't bring much of anything new to *any* genre. In fact, much of it seems ripped directly from the movie The 10th Kingdom.
56) Renegades - Holy. Shit.
I hate myself for this. Generally, I "discover" book series when they're on the third volume (or more) so I have a bit of cushioning to get me up to date. This is the first time I've entered on the ground floor and that pisses me off soooo much. I don't know if I'll be able to wait for the second book. This was just too good.
57) I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 - I liked this book, but wish it had been handled differently. Little of it is actually about Gettysburg. I would have liked if the author had separated this into two separate books - one following the main characters focusing on "I Survived the Underground Railroad" and one that follows someone actually IN the battle of Gettysburg (using the title of this book).
58) I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871 - Meh. The sappy "they all lived happily ever after" ending of this one annoyed me.
59) I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 - I like when Tarshis gives the characters multiple conflicts to deal with and I feel she balanced the multiple plot lines nicely in this book. My only qualm was a character mentioning that they smelled the gas leaks. Natural gas didn't start getting odorized in the US until around the 1920s and it wasn't widespread until the 1930s (after a school exploded in a natural gas disaster that killed three hundred and injured hundreds more).
60) I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941 - Yet another "they all lived happily ever after" volume of I Survived. One of these days I'd love for Tarshis to acknowledge that PEOPLE DIE. Not the main character of course, but secondary characters.
17connie53
>14 benuathanasia:, >15 benuathanasia: and >16 benuathanasia: Wow, Benny. You have been reading a lot of books in this first few months. Do you have a certain goal for the year? I know you don't have a ticker, but Chèli would be helped a lot (and you could add a lot of ROOTs to the group total) if you could set a goal for 2018.
18benuathanasia
Hey connie,
I just edited my first post so that it reflects a goal of 200 books.
I used to do the trackers, but most of my editing gets done during my lunch break and (for whatever reason I can't fathom) the tracker site is blocked at my work and having it embedded into my thread made it a nightmare to get in here.
I just edited my first post so that it reflects a goal of 200 books.
I used to do the trackers, but most of my editing gets done during my lunch break and (for whatever reason I can't fathom) the tracker site is blocked at my work and having it embedded into my thread made it a nightmare to get in here.
19benuathanasia
61) I Survived the Attacks of September 11th, 2001 - I cried. This is the first time Tarshis made me cry. Maybe because I remember it all too well or maybe it was just better than her other books, but this book is tarnished only by the obnoxious last minute save of a character you were led to believe was dead. I'm starting to realize that there are never any "real" stakes in Tarshis's books. Yeah, hundreds and thousands of people die in the events she writes about, but the main character(s) always come out unscathed.
62) I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 - Even though Tarshis didn't spend much time on the build-up to Katrina, I like how she offered the different perspectives - there's an even divide between "this'll be nothing" and "CRAP! EVACUATE!!!" I also like that there wasn't a cliched reunion with Barry's savior.
63) Unwanteds - This was very abrupt. Everything happens so fast. There's really no time for processing or world building. Descriptive language is very sparse. Don't get me wrong, it's very enjoyable, I just wish they'd spent more than five seconds on the war the entire book was building towards.
64) Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program: Grades K-1 (2nd ed.) - This is literally just a collection of summaries of picture books, poems, and about 6 higher order thinking questions for each piece. That's it. You can get that anywhere. Not to mention that most of the selected poems are far more developmentally appropriate for high school (or college, in some cases) than even the most advanced of kindergartners.
Also, the illustration that accompanies Make Way for Ducklings is of chicks - baby chickens. VERY different from ducklings.
Sample of a poem included:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
-The Eagle
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Really? REALLY???
65) I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 - I've come to the realization that Tarshis gives the protagonists sob-story backgrounds (death of a parent or emotional tragedy) so she can eschew having characters actually suffer REAL loss *during* the books. No one is ever maimed. No one of importance dies. They're well-written books, I just wish she'd trust kids more with heavy emotions.
66) Charlie Bone and the Time Twister - So, it's good we get a cast overview at the beginning because WOW does this jump around between a lot of different characters.
67) I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters - It lacks the emotional investment of Tarshis's other stories, but overall the information was presented in an interesting way. Not bad, but not great either.
68) Drama - Not as good as her other works. The whole book was about the main character drooling over different guys. I hate that crap. It's been done to death and Telgemeier brought nothing new to it. It was also annoying that - of course - the gay character ends up playing a woman in the school play. Homosexuality =/ transsexuality and at this point the trope of a gay guy being effeminate or a woman on the inside is offensive and should only be written by *actual* gay guys.
69) Complete Big Nate #2 - Better than the last collection, but still falls woefully flat in the big, wide world or comic strips. It's disappointing that the "protagonists" of all the quippy children's books are boys that revel in their ignorance (this, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Middle School, etc).
70) Howl's Moving Castle - Pleasant and strange. It annoys me how laissez faire Sophie is about everything. Nothing strikes her as odd. Her reaction to everything is "Ok, this is how it is now..." It was a fun story, but following Sophie as the main character weakened the story, in my opinion.
62) I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 - Even though Tarshis didn't spend much time on the build-up to Katrina, I like how she offered the different perspectives - there's an even divide between "this'll be nothing" and "CRAP! EVACUATE!!!" I also like that there wasn't a cliched reunion with Barry's savior.
63) Unwanteds - This was very abrupt. Everything happens so fast. There's really no time for processing or world building. Descriptive language is very sparse. Don't get me wrong, it's very enjoyable, I just wish they'd spent more than five seconds on the war the entire book was building towards.
64) Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program: Grades K-1 (2nd ed.) - This is literally just a collection of summaries of picture books, poems, and about 6 higher order thinking questions for each piece. That's it. You can get that anywhere. Not to mention that most of the selected poems are far more developmentally appropriate for high school (or college, in some cases) than even the most advanced of kindergartners.
Also, the illustration that accompanies Make Way for Ducklings is of chicks - baby chickens. VERY different from ducklings.
Sample of a poem included:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
-The Eagle
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Really? REALLY???
65) I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 - I've come to the realization that Tarshis gives the protagonists sob-story backgrounds (death of a parent or emotional tragedy) so she can eschew having characters actually suffer REAL loss *during* the books. No one is ever maimed. No one of importance dies. They're well-written books, I just wish she'd trust kids more with heavy emotions.
66) Charlie Bone and the Time Twister - So, it's good we get a cast overview at the beginning because WOW does this jump around between a lot of different characters.
67) I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters - It lacks the emotional investment of Tarshis's other stories, but overall the information was presented in an interesting way. Not bad, but not great either.
68) Drama - Not as good as her other works. The whole book was about the main character drooling over different guys. I hate that crap. It's been done to death and Telgemeier brought nothing new to it. It was also annoying that - of course - the gay character ends up playing a woman in the school play. Homosexuality =/ transsexuality and at this point the trope of a gay guy being effeminate or a woman on the inside is offensive and should only be written by *actual* gay guys.
69) Complete Big Nate #2 - Better than the last collection, but still falls woefully flat in the big, wide world or comic strips. It's disappointing that the "protagonists" of all the quippy children's books are boys that revel in their ignorance (this, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Middle School, etc).
70) Howl's Moving Castle - Pleasant and strange. It annoys me how laissez faire Sophie is about everything. Nothing strikes her as odd. Her reaction to everything is "Ok, this is how it is now..." It was a fun story, but following Sophie as the main character weakened the story, in my opinion.
20This-n-That
Wow, you are zooming along with your reading, Benny. I agree with your thoughts about The Help. The book was so well written!
21benuathanasia
71) This World We Live In -I spent the first few chapters excited to see Alex show back up.
And then he did.
And then I spent most of the book hoping he would die.
Dear god is he an irredeemably obnoxious and useless character. I'm just glad Miranda's family recognized this even if she couldn't.
72) Deadline - After Georgia's death I was a bit reluctant to start this.
I'm glad I did. Georgia continues on as Sean's imaginary friend/voice/psychotic break. I just wish that if Grant decided to go this route, she would have gone whole-hog and played it up, rather than have the occasional Obi-Wan cameos.
Also, the sex scenes were completely gratuitous and did NOTHING to further the plot or character development.
But the end...oh the end...so predictable and cliche. So overdone and unimaginative...So, thoroughly gratifying. Normally, I would abhor the way this ended, but I needed it. Thoroughly, genuinely *needed* it...
73) Interactions in Ecology and Literature - Excellent. The selected works are age/grade appropriate, the language is easily adaptable to be appropriate, the lessons are aligned with growth and development milestones, and there's a decent amount of diversity in the lessons/projects to keep students (and teachers!) from getting bored.
74) Complete Big Nate #3 - So Nate's as reprehensible as ever. His creepy stalker-obsession is getting worse.
75) The Graveyard Book - Shockingly, I enjoyed this. Normally Gaiman's work bores me to tears, but this was pretty good. I was disappointed that the final conflict was so quickly dealt with, but that seems to be a fault of most children's and YA fiction - they want to get it wrapped up in one chapter and done with.
76) Out of My Mind - Astounding. This has inspired me to create a bulletin board in my school library for "Ms Molly's OMG of the Month." It was heartbreaking and beautiful and taught a lesson sadly missing from most children's and YA books - sometimes there aren't any happy endings. Or, if there is, it's bittersweet and not what you wished it were.
77) Hamilton: The Revolution - Fascinating and informative. I just wish the audiobook reader didn't...*such* so much. She was so horribly cast for this book. Stiff and awkward.
78) Cress - (to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it")
If you're deus and you know it ex machina!
If you're deus and you know it ex machina!
If you're deus and you know it and you really wanna show it,
If you're deus and you know it ex machina!
The way everyone keeps connecting back to each other is so artificial, forced, cheap, and annoying. The story would be so much more rewarding without this laziness.
79) People of Sparks - Significantly better than the first novel in the story. We get decent character-building, acceptable world-building, realistic conflict driven by fairly predictable events (predictable as it - yeah, that would really happen if you did x, y, z. Not predictable as in "Lame! I KNEW that would happen!).
80) I Am the Messenger - This would have been truly astounding if it weren't for the insanely weak ending. As I approached the end, I couldn't think of any way the book could end in a satisfying way. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that *no* proper ending would have been the most satisfying way to finish it off. Instead, we got a lackluster "Return of the King" it-keeps-not-ending ending.
And then he did.
And then I spent most of the book hoping he would die.
Dear god is he an irredeemably obnoxious and useless character. I'm just glad Miranda's family recognized this even if she couldn't.
72) Deadline - After Georgia's death I was a bit reluctant to start this.
I'm glad I did. Georgia continues on as Sean's imaginary friend/voice/psychotic break. I just wish that if Grant decided to go this route, she would have gone whole-hog and played it up, rather than have the occasional Obi-Wan cameos.
Also, the sex scenes were completely gratuitous and did NOTHING to further the plot or character development.
But the end...oh the end...so predictable and cliche. So overdone and unimaginative...So, thoroughly gratifying. Normally, I would abhor the way this ended, but I needed it. Thoroughly, genuinely *needed* it...
73) Interactions in Ecology and Literature - Excellent. The selected works are age/grade appropriate, the language is easily adaptable to be appropriate, the lessons are aligned with growth and development milestones, and there's a decent amount of diversity in the lessons/projects to keep students (and teachers!) from getting bored.
74) Complete Big Nate #3 - So Nate's as reprehensible as ever. His creepy stalker-obsession is getting worse.
75) The Graveyard Book - Shockingly, I enjoyed this. Normally Gaiman's work bores me to tears, but this was pretty good. I was disappointed that the final conflict was so quickly dealt with, but that seems to be a fault of most children's and YA fiction - they want to get it wrapped up in one chapter and done with.
76) Out of My Mind - Astounding. This has inspired me to create a bulletin board in my school library for "Ms Molly's OMG of the Month." It was heartbreaking and beautiful and taught a lesson sadly missing from most children's and YA books - sometimes there aren't any happy endings. Or, if there is, it's bittersweet and not what you wished it were.
77) Hamilton: The Revolution - Fascinating and informative. I just wish the audiobook reader didn't...*such* so much. She was so horribly cast for this book. Stiff and awkward.
78) Cress - (to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it")
If you're deus and you know it ex machina!
If you're deus and you know it ex machina!
If you're deus and you know it and you really wanna show it,
If you're deus and you know it ex machina!
The way everyone keeps connecting back to each other is so artificial, forced, cheap, and annoying. The story would be so much more rewarding without this laziness.
79) People of Sparks - Significantly better than the first novel in the story. We get decent character-building, acceptable world-building, realistic conflict driven by fairly predictable events (predictable as it - yeah, that would really happen if you did x, y, z. Not predictable as in "Lame! I KNEW that would happen!).
80) I Am the Messenger - This would have been truly astounding if it weren't for the insanely weak ending. As I approached the end, I couldn't think of any way the book could end in a satisfying way. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that *no* proper ending would have been the most satisfying way to finish it off. Instead, we got a lackluster "Return of the King" it-keeps-not-ending ending.
22connie53
>18 benuathanasia: WOW 200 books to read this year. That's a challenge! And you are almost at the half way point.
Perhaps you should post your goal in the ticker-thread without a ticker, so Chèli knows about your plans too.
Perhaps you should post your goal in the ticker-thread without a ticker, so Chèli knows about your plans too.
23benuathanasia
81) The Arctic Incident - *yawn*
I really don't understand the love for this series. The world-building is weak, the characters aren't interesting, it's littered with cheap fart-jokes. WTF?
82) I Survived the Children's Blizzard, 1888 - I survived formula:
Take a protagonist with minor, inconvenient problems.
Give them a major disaster in which they fail to suffer in any meaningful way and come out (more or less) just fine.
Disaster puts their previous problems in perspective.
BUT, rather than disaster make them stop caring about paltry issues, it SOLVES their problems FOR them!
83) The Upside of Unrequited - It's good, I guess. Interesting characters and realistic dialogue (if not insanely vulgar for...no purpose other than shock value?). It's just, the plot is soooo cliched it's REALLY hard to give a crap. Self-conscious girl likes boy. Girl not sure if boy likes girl. Boy like girl but isn't sure if girl likes boy. Paltry misunderstandings happen because someone walks in partway on a conversation and never gets clarification until way later. Nothing original.
84) The Enchantress Returns - So...another fetch quest book with no real struggle to accomplish their tasks? Weak. Real weak.
85) Flat Broke with Two Goats - I think I may hate the author. She's been very passive her entire life, letting everyone else handle everything for her and really seems to continue that trend even at the end of the book (she ALMOST broke free and started taking responsibility, but then hubby talked her back). And those poor animals. I shudder to think how many animals suffered and died needlessly because she had no idea what she was doing. She did plenty of googling on the buying part, but once it came to caring for them, she didn't have a damn clue - and as soon as something goes wrong, her response it "I should have googled that...oh well. Too late." What an irresponsible fuckwad.
86) Winter - An enjoyable ending, but wow is so much of it copied from Hunger Games.
Of course you've got the hero-girl trope, but there's also the design of the Luna. It's divvied up into districts that all specialize in certain types of labor. Luna has muttation warriors just like Panem. The aristocracy vie to have the most outlandish costumes/makeup/hair/etc.
I really miss original thoughts in writing.
Also, FUCK OFF WITH THE PAIR THE SPARE TROPE! Not every character has to wind up in a happily ever after romance with their soulmate! I'm surprised Iko didn't wind up with a toaster or something.
87) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers vol. 1 - Excellent. Is it everything I hoped it would be? No. Of course not. With the ownership of the property the way it is, I'll probably never get the ultra-realistic storylines I long for. But it's still an amazing re-boot.
88) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers vol. 2 - As good as volume one, but it has a definite feeling of being a bridge between two major events. This isn't disappointing, but instead makes me feel really anxious to start the next volume.
89) Awesome is Everywhere - I'm REALLY not sure what to make of this book. I feel like it's the print edition of an interactive ebook or something? It tells you to "tap" the pictures (to get a zoomed in picture after you turn the page) and blow on them (to show a picture of a wave on the next page) and whatnot. The pictures are very lovely - somewhat akin to desktop backgrounds, but...I really have no idea what the purpose of this book is?
90) I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 - There seems to be a consensus amongst writers as to what HAS to be in a book about the Titanic:
There HAS to be a scene where the protagonist talks with Mr. Andrews.
There HAS to be a scene in which someone points out that there aren't enough lifeboats (despite Titanic exceeding requirements of the time and so who the hell would notice?)
There HAS to be a scene in the storage hold.
There HAS to be a scene of a poor, beleaguered first-class passenger getting trapped behind the steerage gates.
In other words, Tarshis treads no new water and simply rehashes everything done in every other Titanic book.
I really don't understand the love for this series. The world-building is weak, the characters aren't interesting, it's littered with cheap fart-jokes. WTF?
82) I Survived the Children's Blizzard, 1888 - I survived formula:
Take a protagonist with minor, inconvenient problems.
Give them a major disaster in which they fail to suffer in any meaningful way and come out (more or less) just fine.
Disaster puts their previous problems in perspective.
BUT, rather than disaster make them stop caring about paltry issues, it SOLVES their problems FOR them!
83) The Upside of Unrequited - It's good, I guess. Interesting characters and realistic dialogue (if not insanely vulgar for...no purpose other than shock value?). It's just, the plot is soooo cliched it's REALLY hard to give a crap. Self-conscious girl likes boy. Girl not sure if boy likes girl. Boy like girl but isn't sure if girl likes boy. Paltry misunderstandings happen because someone walks in partway on a conversation and never gets clarification until way later. Nothing original.
84) The Enchantress Returns - So...another fetch quest book with no real struggle to accomplish their tasks? Weak. Real weak.
85) Flat Broke with Two Goats - I think I may hate the author. She's been very passive her entire life, letting everyone else handle everything for her and really seems to continue that trend even at the end of the book (she ALMOST broke free and started taking responsibility, but then hubby talked her back). And those poor animals. I shudder to think how many animals suffered and died needlessly because she had no idea what she was doing. She did plenty of googling on the buying part, but once it came to caring for them, she didn't have a damn clue - and as soon as something goes wrong, her response it "I should have googled that...oh well. Too late." What an irresponsible fuckwad.
86) Winter - An enjoyable ending, but wow is so much of it copied from Hunger Games.
Of course you've got the hero-girl trope, but there's also the design of the Luna. It's divvied up into districts that all specialize in certain types of labor. Luna has muttation warriors just like Panem. The aristocracy vie to have the most outlandish costumes/makeup/hair/etc.
I really miss original thoughts in writing.
Also, FUCK OFF WITH THE PAIR THE SPARE TROPE! Not every character has to wind up in a happily ever after romance with their soulmate! I'm surprised Iko didn't wind up with a toaster or something.
87) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers vol. 1 - Excellent. Is it everything I hoped it would be? No. Of course not. With the ownership of the property the way it is, I'll probably never get the ultra-realistic storylines I long for. But it's still an amazing re-boot.
88) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers vol. 2 - As good as volume one, but it has a definite feeling of being a bridge between two major events. This isn't disappointing, but instead makes me feel really anxious to start the next volume.
89) Awesome is Everywhere - I'm REALLY not sure what to make of this book. I feel like it's the print edition of an interactive ebook or something? It tells you to "tap" the pictures (to get a zoomed in picture after you turn the page) and blow on them (to show a picture of a wave on the next page) and whatnot. The pictures are very lovely - somewhat akin to desktop backgrounds, but...I really have no idea what the purpose of this book is?
90) I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 - There seems to be a consensus amongst writers as to what HAS to be in a book about the Titanic:
There HAS to be a scene where the protagonist talks with Mr. Andrews.
There HAS to be a scene in which someone points out that there aren't enough lifeboats (despite Titanic exceeding requirements of the time and so who the hell would notice?)
There HAS to be a scene in the storage hold.
There HAS to be a scene of a poor, beleaguered first-class passenger getting trapped behind the steerage gates.
In other words, Tarshis treads no new water and simply rehashes everything done in every other Titanic book.
25benuathanasia
91) I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 -It's the same length as all the other books, but it feels more abrupt. It offers less information on the events through the protagonist's eyes than most of the other books.
Also, way to ripoff Jaws. The captain is a complete copy-paste of Quint. We've got him butting into a conversation he isn't part of to offer up facts about sharks. We've got his monologue about going into the water. We've got the "dolls eyes" speech. He's a crazy loner shunned by the town. Him and his gun come to the rescue. The more I read Tarshis, the more I realize she does borrows a bit here and there from other people and passes it off as her own.
92) Ahsoka - Holy crap are the ambient background noises, sound effects, and music infuriating!!!
93) Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl - A rather run-of-the-mill take on the sitcom standard "main character promises to be in too many places at once."
94) I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79 - I enjoyed the series leaving the US for once. It was interesting to see peoples from a different time and place dealing with drama.
95) I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980 - It never occurred to me many people had never heard of Mount St. Helens. Apparently, much of its notoriety comes from this very explosion.
96) Homeroom Diaries - Touching, sad, funny, and fun. This is the closest thing to a true piece of literature Patterson has ever come close to writing.
97) The Skin I'm In - Enjoyable, though it hits a bit too close to home.
98) Big Nate Out Loud - More crap from one of the biggest assholes in comics.
99) The Running Man - Wow. VERY different from the movie, but very good in its own ways. The ending was wonderful, though a bit too predictable.
100) The Strange Case of Origami Yoda - Wow. The kids in this book are complete pieces of shit and never really learn to be better people. This book could have done a fairly good job of teaching kids to deal with people that are obnoxious and possibly border-line special needs. Instead, they spend the whole book using him and treating him like crap without ever seeing the error of their ways.
Also, way to ripoff Jaws. The captain is a complete copy-paste of Quint. We've got him butting into a conversation he isn't part of to offer up facts about sharks. We've got his monologue about going into the water. We've got the "dolls eyes" speech. He's a crazy loner shunned by the town. Him and his gun come to the rescue. The more I read Tarshis, the more I realize she does borrows a bit here and there from other people and passes it off as her own.
92) Ahsoka - Holy crap are the ambient background noises, sound effects, and music infuriating!!!
93) Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl - A rather run-of-the-mill take on the sitcom standard "main character promises to be in too many places at once."
94) I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79 - I enjoyed the series leaving the US for once. It was interesting to see peoples from a different time and place dealing with drama.
95) I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980 - It never occurred to me many people had never heard of Mount St. Helens. Apparently, much of its notoriety comes from this very explosion.
96) Homeroom Diaries - Touching, sad, funny, and fun. This is the closest thing to a true piece of literature Patterson has ever come close to writing.
97) The Skin I'm In - Enjoyable, though it hits a bit too close to home.
98) Big Nate Out Loud - More crap from one of the biggest assholes in comics.
99) The Running Man - Wow. VERY different from the movie, but very good in its own ways. The ending was wonderful, though a bit too predictable.
100) The Strange Case of Origami Yoda - Wow. The kids in this book are complete pieces of shit and never really learn to be better people. This book could have done a fairly good job of teaching kids to deal with people that are obnoxious and possibly border-line special needs. Instead, they spend the whole book using him and treating him like crap without ever seeing the error of their ways.
26benuathanasia
101) Mountains Beyond Mountains - This gave a pretty decent overview of the medical issues facing Peru, Haiti, and Russia without getting too bogged down in sciences-speak. The background story on different people did nothing to add to the book and merely padded length.
102) Thirteen Reasons Why - Wow. Poorly written and not particularly enjoyable. If Hannah hadn't killed herself, I'd be tempted to do the job for her. She's whiny, melodramatic, and does very little to make her own life better. She simply relies on everyone else to solve all her issues.
103) Counting by 7s - So heartbreaking. The happily ever after ending was a bit saccharine for me, but on the whole, the book was wonderful and enjoyable.
104) Flora and Ulysses - So. Damn. Obnoxious. Nothing about this was particularly enjoyable - which is shocking, given my over-the-top love for everything furry. It was just very slapstick and slapdash.
105) Stars Above - Hmmm...I loved the main series but this is just a collection of vignettes that answer questions I doubt anyone cared enough to ask.
106) Big Nate: From the Top - One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
107) Complete Big Nate #4 - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
108) The Essential Rumi - The quality was all over the place. Some of it was beautiful, some of it was sad, some of it was funny, some of it was boring, some of it was convoluted. One of them is definitely going up onto my wall of quotes, though.
109) Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record - Cute. I enjoyed watching the girls finding a way to work out their mistake in a fairly responsible manner that didn't leave them humiliated.
110) A Study in Charlotte - It was hard to separate this from all the other Sherlock Holmes professional fanfics out there. Contemporary Holmes? Been done. Gender-bent Holmes? Seen it. Grandchildren with cloned personalities? SNOOZE!
But once I moved past the overwhelming "been there, done that" sensation, the story itself was really good and I believe I will eventually continue the series.
102) Thirteen Reasons Why - Wow. Poorly written and not particularly enjoyable. If Hannah hadn't killed herself, I'd be tempted to do the job for her. She's whiny, melodramatic, and does very little to make her own life better. She simply relies on everyone else to solve all her issues.
103) Counting by 7s - So heartbreaking. The happily ever after ending was a bit saccharine for me, but on the whole, the book was wonderful and enjoyable.
104) Flora and Ulysses - So. Damn. Obnoxious. Nothing about this was particularly enjoyable - which is shocking, given my over-the-top love for everything furry. It was just very slapstick and slapdash.
105) Stars Above - Hmmm...I loved the main series but this is just a collection of vignettes that answer questions I doubt anyone cared enough to ask.
106) Big Nate: From the Top - One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
107) Complete Big Nate #4 - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
108) The Essential Rumi - The quality was all over the place. Some of it was beautiful, some of it was sad, some of it was funny, some of it was boring, some of it was convoluted. One of them is definitely going up onto my wall of quotes, though.
109) Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record - Cute. I enjoyed watching the girls finding a way to work out their mistake in a fairly responsible manner that didn't leave them humiliated.
110) A Study in Charlotte - It was hard to separate this from all the other Sherlock Holmes professional fanfics out there. Contemporary Holmes? Been done. Gender-bent Holmes? Seen it. Grandchildren with cloned personalities? SNOOZE!
But once I moved past the overwhelming "been there, done that" sensation, the story itself was really good and I believe I will eventually continue the series.
28benuathanasia
111) The Great War - As with all anthologies, this was a mix of good, bad, and mediocre. I was a bit terrified of how this would be when I heard the first reader's voice. And then she read the second story as well. She was HORRIBLE. But thankfully, there were other readers as well. Maud's story and the one with the cigarette were my favorites.
112) Solo - I'm not a fan of spoken-word poetry. I held that against this book far longer than it deserved. Once I could get over the spoken-word poetry format of this book it became...
It was...
It defies words. The words swirled around inside my skin, choked my heart, stole my breath. It was so amazing.
113) The Devil's Highway - I wish they'd picked a different reader for the audiobook. The "story" was wonderful and heartbreaking and infuriating and fascinating, but the narrator was SOOOO BAD. Stilted. Look Alberto, I get you wrote it and did all the research, but you CANNOT read aloud. Please don't try! It was like really bad spoken word poetry.
114) Fairest - Dammit! Don't make me FEEL for Levana!!! This was probably the deepest of the Lunar Chronicle books. I could have done without the meta-awareness (when Everett was reading to Winter and she was describing all the characters we'd eventually meet to rescue her and Selene) but other than that. Amazing addition to the series.
115) Johnny Get Your Gun by John Ball - Infuriatingly boring!!!
It's like those $0.25 books you always find molding away at church tag sales. Mediocre author with a boring plot.
The main character is a nine year old boy with less personality than a cat turd.
116) Because of Mr. Terupt - Wow. Amazing. It was astounding to see how the evolution of the characters. And it seemed really authentic the way the memory of Mr. Terupt - his spectre - affected his students just as much as his presence and lessons did. A good teacher really does touch kids like that. That being said, the reason the kids looked up to him so much wasn't really well explored when he was not in a coma. I've had plenty of teachers who were basically clones of him that kids had ZERO respect for.
117) Everything, Everything - This holds fairly true to the movie. I hate seeing the movie before reading the book, but in this case it didn't make much difference. Olly seemed very...redneck-ish (the voice reader for him) which was obnoxious. But otherwise, wonderful book.
118) Alexander Hamilton - Shockingly readable for how dense it was. Quite enjoyable and certainly informative. A must-read for anyone interested in the founding of the country.
119) Big Nate: Pray for a Fire Drill - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
120) Big Nate: Welcome to My World - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
112) Solo - I'm not a fan of spoken-word poetry. I held that against this book far longer than it deserved. Once I could get over the spoken-word poetry format of this book it became...
It was...
It defies words. The words swirled around inside my skin, choked my heart, stole my breath. It was so amazing.
113) The Devil's Highway - I wish they'd picked a different reader for the audiobook. The "story" was wonderful and heartbreaking and infuriating and fascinating, but the narrator was SOOOO BAD. Stilted. Look Alberto, I get you wrote it and did all the research, but you CANNOT read aloud. Please don't try! It was like really bad spoken word poetry.
114) Fairest - Dammit! Don't make me FEEL for Levana!!! This was probably the deepest of the Lunar Chronicle books. I could have done without the meta-awareness (when Everett was reading to Winter and she was describing all the characters we'd eventually meet to rescue her and Selene) but other than that. Amazing addition to the series.
115) Johnny Get Your Gun by John Ball - Infuriatingly boring!!!
It's like those $0.25 books you always find molding away at church tag sales. Mediocre author with a boring plot.
The main character is a nine year old boy with less personality than a cat turd.
116) Because of Mr. Terupt - Wow. Amazing. It was astounding to see how the evolution of the characters. And it seemed really authentic the way the memory of Mr. Terupt - his spectre - affected his students just as much as his presence and lessons did. A good teacher really does touch kids like that. That being said, the reason the kids looked up to him so much wasn't really well explored when he was not in a coma. I've had plenty of teachers who were basically clones of him that kids had ZERO respect for.
117) Everything, Everything - This holds fairly true to the movie. I hate seeing the movie before reading the book, but in this case it didn't make much difference. Olly seemed very...redneck-ish (the voice reader for him) which was obnoxious. But otherwise, wonderful book.
118) Alexander Hamilton - Shockingly readable for how dense it was. Quite enjoyable and certainly informative. A must-read for anyone interested in the founding of the country.
119) Big Nate: Pray for a Fire Drill - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
120) Big Nate: Welcome to My World - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
29benuathanasia
121) Big Nate: Great Minds Think Alike - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
122) Big Nate Makes a Splash - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
123) Tomorrow, When the War Began - Initial review: The kids are all bushwhacking. They are boring. The scenery - when descriptive - is quite pleasant. But I couldn't care less about the characters.
124) Wires and Nerve - The illustrations were...eh. Thorne DEFINITELY did not fit any of his descriptions from the novels or even Meyer's website. Iko's personality seemed way too inauthentic for her and CALLED IT! They paired the spare (look it up, it's an obnoxious trope that's overwhelming common in YA books). The story was interesting though.
125) On Two Feet and Wings - So...I get that this is a memoir and all, but even still, shouldn't there be...conflict of some kind? Everyone is nice to him. Everyone helps hims. No one swindles him. Aside from a little scuffle that was over within a sentence nothing really happens. Boy goes to Turkey. Makes friends with everyone. Gets a couple side jobs. Goes to Britain. Ta-da?
Very weak.
126) When Dimple Met Rishi - I enjoy romance movies. But I've never much cared for romance novels (not bodice-rippers romance novels - ew. But even meetcute novels (John Green) don't really appeal to me). I think this helped me understand why. In movies, chemistry between characters can come across in so many ways. In novels, you often kinda have to just take the author's word for it. This book is very much like the old Twain quote "Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream." I don't have to simply accept that Rishi and Dimple have astounding chemistry. I can FEEL it in every line.
127) Big Nate: The Crowd Goes Wild! - See all my other BN reviews.
128) Big Nate: Game On! - See all my other BN reviews.
129) Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen - Dear lord, Jazzy is a perky little thing! She spoke about her childhood with honesty, candor, and humility. She's an amazing person, especially for a teen.
130) Saving Montgomery Sole - So...I know the quality of a book shouldn't be predicated on how well you like the characters, but when a character is THAT *painfully* unpleasant (and judgmental, and cruel, and bossy) it's hard to enjoy the plot.
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
122) Big Nate Makes a Splash - As these are all starting to blend together in their mediocrity, I'll just affix a conversation I had with some students about Big Nate:
One of my students caught me reading this and they were SOOO excited to see a teacher reading the same stuff THEY read. So, I decided to take the opportunity to ask a few students why they enjoy Big Nate. I was met with blank stares. "Well...ummmm..."
Me: If you don't like it, why do you read it?
Her: Because it's fast. We get more points for more books, so we can get quick points.
Her fellow students: *nods and murmurs of agreement*
Ah. That makes so much sense.
123) Tomorrow, When the War Began - Initial review: The kids are all bushwhacking. They are boring. The scenery - when descriptive - is quite pleasant. But I couldn't care less about the characters.
124) Wires and Nerve - The illustrations were...eh. Thorne DEFINITELY did not fit any of his descriptions from the novels or even Meyer's website. Iko's personality seemed way too inauthentic for her and CALLED IT! They paired the spare (look it up, it's an obnoxious trope that's overwhelming common in YA books). The story was interesting though.
125) On Two Feet and Wings - So...I get that this is a memoir and all, but even still, shouldn't there be...conflict of some kind? Everyone is nice to him. Everyone helps hims. No one swindles him. Aside from a little scuffle that was over within a sentence nothing really happens. Boy goes to Turkey. Makes friends with everyone. Gets a couple side jobs. Goes to Britain. Ta-da?
Very weak.
126) When Dimple Met Rishi - I enjoy romance movies. But I've never much cared for romance novels (not bodice-rippers romance novels - ew. But even meetcute novels (John Green) don't really appeal to me). I think this helped me understand why. In movies, chemistry between characters can come across in so many ways. In novels, you often kinda have to just take the author's word for it. This book is very much like the old Twain quote "Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream." I don't have to simply accept that Rishi and Dimple have astounding chemistry. I can FEEL it in every line.
127) Big Nate: The Crowd Goes Wild! - See all my other BN reviews.
128) Big Nate: Game On! - See all my other BN reviews.
129) Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen - Dear lord, Jazzy is a perky little thing! She spoke about her childhood with honesty, candor, and humility. She's an amazing person, especially for a teen.
130) Saving Montgomery Sole - So...I know the quality of a book shouldn't be predicated on how well you like the characters, but when a character is THAT *painfully* unpleasant (and judgmental, and cruel, and bossy) it's hard to enjoy the plot.
30connie53
>28 benuathanasia: and >29 benuathanasia: LOL! I think you made your point there, Benny!
31LadyoftheLodge
I just stumbled across your thread, and you are totally cracking me up! I retired from public school education as a middle school teacher, and you are soooo right! My students would always recommend reading material for me, and I read it, just as you do. Your reviews are so spot on. Big Nate . . . 'nuff said.
32benuathanasia
131) Max - No better or worse than the others. I could seriously do without the Fang romance, but whatever.
132) Big Nate: Dibs on This Chair - See all my other BN reviews.
133) Three Times Lucky - Well THAT was a snoozefest. A bunch of uninteresting characters trying to solve a mystery I couldn't give a rat's butt about.
134) The Wee Free Men - Good, I guess. But it felt too much like Henson's Labyrinth.
135) Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation - The first part of this book isn't very indicative of the finesse for writing I know Pollan has. He keeps talking about other people's passion, without conveying it or really feeling it himself.
136) Baker's Magic - Excellent. Very much on par with Terry Pratchet.
137) Selected Poems of Langston Hughes -
138) Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library - Cute and fun, I guess, but it's just a rehash of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Ready Player One - but with a much crappier prize.
139) I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster, 1937 - This is the first one of Tarshis's books where I actually learned new stuff! Good job.
140) Love and First Sight - This was pretty cute and enjoyable.
132) Big Nate: Dibs on This Chair - See all my other BN reviews.
133) Three Times Lucky - Well THAT was a snoozefest. A bunch of uninteresting characters trying to solve a mystery I couldn't give a rat's butt about.
134) The Wee Free Men - Good, I guess. But it felt too much like Henson's Labyrinth.
135) Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation - The first part of this book isn't very indicative of the finesse for writing I know Pollan has. He keeps talking about other people's passion, without conveying it or really feeling it himself.
136) Baker's Magic - Excellent. Very much on par with Terry Pratchet.
137) Selected Poems of Langston Hughes -
138) Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library - Cute and fun, I guess, but it's just a rehash of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Ready Player One - but with a much crappier prize.
139) I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster, 1937 - This is the first one of Tarshis's books where I actually learned new stuff! Good job.
140) Love and First Sight - This was pretty cute and enjoyable.
33benuathanasia
141) The Black Count - So...it was well written and all, Dumas Sr. just isn't as interesting as I was lead to believe. It's like when horror movies claim to be inspired by true events - yeah, there might be some vague semblance between the movie and an event that happened, it's just...the event was a pale shadow of the movie. Dumas Sr. is a pale shadow of the characters and stories based on him.
142) Extraordinary Means - Aw, how cute. /sarcasm
This author is obviously a John Green fan and decided to write Looking for Alaska/The Fault in Our Stars mashup fanfiction...and it fell so horrifically flat of that goal.
143) Big Nate: I Can't Take It! - See all my other BN reviews.
144) Fire and Fury - I'm shocked at how little new information this unveiled. Everything was either "well, duh" obvious, or all over the news at some point. I was hoping for some secrets being unearthed.
145) The Just Men of Cordova - Painful. Oh, god, this was just so bad and boring. I actually put my audiobook player aside for a day and just enjoyed the silence around me because I *could not* bear picking this book back up. Its only saving grace was how short it was.
142) Extraordinary Means - Aw, how cute. /sarcasm
This author is obviously a John Green fan and decided to write Looking for Alaska/The Fault in Our Stars mashup fanfiction...and it fell so horrifically flat of that goal.
143) Big Nate: I Can't Take It! - See all my other BN reviews.
144) Fire and Fury - I'm shocked at how little new information this unveiled. Everything was either "well, duh" obvious, or all over the news at some point. I was hoping for some secrets being unearthed.
145) The Just Men of Cordova - Painful. Oh, god, this was just so bad and boring. I actually put my audiobook player aside for a day and just enjoyed the silence around me because I *could not* bear picking this book back up. Its only saving grace was how short it was.
34roomsofbooks
>10 benuathanasia: I don't know if someone has already asked, as I am replying as I read, but your comment on Revolting Rhymes...
You realise that RD was using the word in it's original meaning?
It refers to someone who is slovenly and keeps an untidy/dirty house.
It has nothing to do with sex and/or morality
You realise that RD was using the word in it's original meaning?
It refers to someone who is slovenly and keeps an untidy/dirty house.
It has nothing to do with sex and/or morality
