Book Review: The 50 Shades Triology

Yup, I read it. Quickly, judge me or relate to me with my obsession of these books. While I know that pretty much every one knows what these books are I will give a quick little summary of the first one.

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Ana is just about to graduate from college when her best friend, Kate ask her to go cover an interview for her with the most successful bachelor in town, Christian Grey. Ana finds herself very intimidated by Christian; while, he finds himself drawn to her somehow. Without going into too much detail, Christian and Ana find themselves entering into a dominant/submissive intimate relationship. 

If you liked Twilight and don't mind reading some naughty behavior, you will most likely like this trilogy. Seriously, subtract the vampires and add in some sex and you've got Fifty Shades. While E.L James seems very knowledgeable in the type of relationship that the two of them have her narration is very juvenile. I read each book in about a day. Taking out their submissive/dominant relationship and you would probably find this on the shelves in a YA section of a book store.

I, however, loved the books. I liked how strong, yet weak, Ana was. I could see nearly every girl in her. She was strong in knowing what she wanted and when to say no, but she also was just so in love with Christian she couldn't think straight. Their quick relationship was a little hard to believe, but I feel like it is like that in many books. I could go into so much more detail about the trilogy, but I'm afraid I'll ruin what happens. 

If you don't mind reading their intimate encounters, then you may enjoy the love story. It is a book that reaches every woman's dream. Ana changes Christian in just about every way. What woman hasn't tried to change a man? 

Book Review: 11/22/63

I just recently joined a book club at school. I'm the worst member though because I have yet to make a meeting. The first book that we read was Stephen King's 11/22/63. I was completely dreading reading this book. Stephen King has never appealed to me, and when I received this brick of a book in the mail I was totally against it. Of course, the literary gods proved me wrong and I absolutely loved it!

Jake Epping is a recently divorced high school English teacher. He also teaches GED classes. This is where he meets Harry. Harry has had an extremely tragic life. His dad murdered his brothers, mom and sister when he was younger. Harry was injured in the attack as well. Jake feels for Harry and wishes that he could change this janitor's outcome.

In comes Al, who owns the diner that Jake has always ate at. Al has come down with Lung Cancer and before he goes he wants to show Jake a secret that he has been keeping. Working in the back one day, he stumbled upon a time portal. Every time Al steps in he is in Maine 1958. He decides that he is going to change the world and stop the Kennedy assassination. This means that he will have to live in the past for nearly 5 years. Each time he comes back to the present though it has only been two minutes. Al never made it to 1963 because he became sick. His dying wish is for Jake to finish what he has started. Jake decides that he can save Kennedy and his dear friend Harry.

Even after reading the summary I was still hesitant to read it. I loved this book. The ending was not what I wanted to happen, but the sweet love story that happens throughout definitely made up for it.

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

Have you read A Discovery of Witches? If you liked Twilight, or anything else related to vampires, you will definitely love this book! Great news? It is an adult read. Dustin is constantly making fun of me for my young adult preference to books. I blame it on my job, but secretly they just thrill me more than any adult book. I take a break every now and then. This was definitely worth the break from the poorly written, weak plots that I'm used to.

Diana Bishop is from a very long line of famous witches dating back to the Salem Witch Trials. However, Diana wants nothing to do with her magic. After her parents died at a young age, she went to live with her aunt and her aunt's partner. Diana wants to be normal. She wants to live like every one else and does everything she can to not use her magic. Ever. Diana is a historian which is one of the most fascinating things about this book. The history in it is wonderful. Diana, tired and alone, decides one day to use her magic to call a book down. The book ends up being a manuscript that supposedly tells witches, vampires, and demons how they came to existence and what to do to keep their race from dying out. Instantly, every creature in the world is interested in how Diana was able to call this lost manuscript and what she did to break the spell to open it. Including, a very old, extremely attractive Matthew Clairmont. He instantly feels a pull to Diana that he cannot explain. The two of them fall into a quick friendship that turns into a forbidden relationship. Vampires and Witches are never to be in relationships; which causes a lot of problems when the two decide they will not follow any such law.

I am IN LOVE with this book. It is a trilogy and BEING TURNED INTO A MOVIE!! WHAT WHAT! Yes, I love a book so much, I just said "What What! Don't make me raise the roof and give a holler! I am never one to actually research a book when it gives it history. I normally pass through the parts I don't know and make sense with what I can. I had my iPad literally next to me at all times so that I could find each part of history this book talks about. Diana, being a historian, is amazed at the history that Matthew has lived through and can't get enough of it. Let me tell you, neither could I.

This book has everything you could possibly need.

• Adventure - Check
• Fantasy - Check
• Incredible pieces of history - Check
• Humor - Check
• Suspense - Check
• A love relationship - Check
• A love relationship with a super smoking hot vampire - Check, Check

Seriously go buy the book! Hurry, before I say What! What! again

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Have you all read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close?  or seen the movie? To be honest, am I even getting the title right? It confuses me every time I see it. On my board at school, under what I'm reading, I wrote it wrong 5 times. My students kept having to correct me.

http://www.comingsoon.com/

The picture is the movie poster, but it was the same on my book as well.

I have to be honest, and you all know from my few book reviews post, that I LOVE to read a book before the movie. It is a must for me. However, I think I would have been ok without this one. The book is cute. Hard to follow though. Oskar lost his father during 9/11. Two years later, he is still having an extremely hard time moving on. It literally hurts him to try. It seems like his mom and grandmother have just moved on, and he is the only one remembering his father. One part of Oskar and his dad's relationship was adventures. After finding two keys in his dad's closet, Oskar believes his father has set him on last mission. He makes it his life to find out what his father was trying to tell him. While following him on this journey, we get to meet his grandmother and grandfather who narrate the other chapters through letters. Oskar's grandmother loves her grandson and has written letters to him. She tells him her story of being married to a husband who left before meeting his song. To be honest, I thought she went into way too much detail about her marriage to tell a child. Other chapters are narrated by the grandfather who wrote letters to a son (Oskar's dad) whom he never met who also went more into depth than any child wants to know about their parents. It was a hard book to follow. While Oskar is witty and mature, it is hard to connect with the rest of the story.I almost wished the grandparents' letters had been thrown out. I enjoyed their story, but not from their point of view. I was wanting to know more about Oskar.

I really want to see the movie. The movie looked a lot better than the book. Yes, this freak of a book person actually admitted this!

Matched Series

Gees, I feel like I should be not talking and off school more often! I am like a blogging machine lately.

Since I cannot talk, I am getting a ton of reading done. Once again, most of the books I read are aimed for middle school kiddos because most of the time I'm reading to put them in my library.

I just got done reading Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie. These is a series I have been wanting to start for a long time and they are absolutely awesome! I finished them so quickly and I can't wait for the 3rd book to come out. Only problem is I have NO IDEA when it is coming out. I didn't get a title, a little excerpt, a release date, or anything! I'm dying here Ally!

http://twilightconnection.wordpress.com/

Technology, disease, and freedom of choice overtook the world. A new Society was made and they make all the choices. They decide what your job will be, how many calories you get to eat, where you will be every part of the day, your social status, when you get to get married, what age you have kids at, and who you get to marry. Cassia has always planned to follow Society's rules. She becomes the "It Girl" when at her Matched Banquet she gets paired up with her very best friend, Xander. Most girls have to move away and marry someone they have never met. She gets to marry her best friend and the person she has known for all of her life. Everything is perfect. Until Cassia gets home to look at the micro chip of Xander and another face comes up. Problem is, she knows this face. It is Ky, the boy from down the street. Instantly, Cassia doesn't know what to do. Society is perfect; it doesn't make mistakes. How can Xander be her Match, if Ky is too? With the help of Ky, her grandfather, and some poetry Cassia begins to see the cracks that are within the Society, and starts to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

http://accioyabooks.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/ally-condie-reveals-matched-sequel/

I don't want to go too much into detail about Crossed. It will give away too much that happened at the end of Matched. I'll put it this way, that it has a ton of adventure. You get to see a new side of Cassia. This strong, survivor side that can only be brought out by the man she loves. Here we still see the same battle between who she should be with Ky or Xander. She thought she had finally made up her mind, but now there may be a secret that could cause her to choose the other boy.

These books were really great. If you enjoyed the Hunger Games you will enjoy these. It has the same sort of stand up for your rights, go against what you have been brought up to believe themes. It doesn't have all the violence and killing though. It still has the girl torn between the boy she knows and another that has come along. It also has a strong family connection as well.

Happy Reading!

Mortal Instruments Series

In case you don't know, I am an avid reader. I constantly have a book in my hand, purse, by my bed, or in the car. Becoming a reading teacher was the most perfect job for me. My students laugh when I tell them about my piles by my bed stand. I have about 30 books by the bed right now and I always have to do the next book in the pile and never jump around. I'm crazy I know. I figured some of you all would like to know the books I'm reading. Now, most of what I read are for my classroom and are geared towards 7th graders. I try to mix books for adults in, and every once in awhile a book I think is for my class ends up being totally inappropriate for the 12 year old mind. I also know, that if you are like me, you find the young adult/teen books more interesting then the trash that gets written for our age group.

I recently just got into the Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare. I was hoping I could put it into my classroom, but it needs no place in a middle school classroom. High school kiddos would like it. If you were a Twilight fan, you'll love this. If you weren't because you thought it was cheesy you will love this too. This is a more mature version of all of those books and is not just a love story.

Mortalinstruments.com

If you like to read before the movie comes out, this series is being turned into a movie too. Clary has a pretty simple life. Her mom, Jocelyn, and her are pretty close. It has always been the two of them since her father died at a young age. Jocelyn's friend, Luke, has always been like a father figure to Clary, and she also has her best friend, Simon who has been acting a little weird lately. Clary and Simon head out one night to the club in town. While there, Clary sees three people dressed funny take a good looking guy into a back closet. Clary follows them in there where she sees the three figures kill the man. She soon finds out that she is the only person who is able to see the three who we later find out are Jace, Isabelle, and Alec. Fast forward a few nights later, Clary and Jocelyn get in a rare fight. Luke and Jocelyn have decided they will be moving far away from everything they know and soon. They refuse to tell her why. In her anger, Clary storms out of the house to go see Simon's untalented, nameless band play a gig. Clary gets a phone call from her mom to stay as far away as possible and never come home. Out of nowhere Jace, one of the people she saw at the club, appears and takes her home. Once she gets home, Clary finds a torn apart apartment, her mother missing, and a demon who wants to kill her. Clary soon finds out that everything in her life has been a lie. Her mother and herself are part of a group of Shadowhunters. Their main goal is to eliminate demons from the world. She in introduced to this world by Jace and his family. Jace and Clary soon find themselves in a romantic relationship. It was one that I was really wanting to see work out. It didn't seem childish like Twilight. It also was not an unhealthy relationship which is what we normally see in these paranormal romances. A relationship where the other cannot survive anything and they will lose literally everyone for that one person.

 I really enjoyed these books. It put an adult twist on a simple story. I couldn't put the books down. There will be 6 in the whole series. This was the only thing that made me a little upset. I feel like most authors these days are jumping on the trilogy/series bandwagon. They stretch stories out longer than they should. At the end of book 3, I had no questions. I was happy with where each character was, and I wasn't wondering what happened to any part of the story. The story kept going into a 4th book. I thought the author would at least change the villain. Show what it was like now that Clary had a better hold on her life. Instead she stretched out the same one and probably will for the remainder of the series. I also have to warn you that the first book takes a disturbing twist near the end. It was something that really bothered me and took way longer to fix it self than I thought it should have. All in all, I loved these books. I'm sticking with the last two because I'm attached to the characters. I want to see what happens to each one and I'm really pushing for Clary and Jace.

 Pictures from Mortalinstruments.com



Thirteen Reasons

Have you all heard of the book called Thirteen Reasons Why.

I have to warn you before you read it that this book is really intense. It really got me thinking and I had a really hard time sleeping last night. A quick summary of the book... Hannah Baker committed suicide, but she had a few last things to say. Before taking a lot of pills, Hannah records 13 cassette tapes. Each tape is "dedicated" to a person who affected her life in some way or another. Many in a negative way. The rules... listen to all 13 tapes, pass them on to the next person, if you don't listen a 2nd set of tapes gets released to the public. The narrator of the book, Clay, always had a crush on Hannah, but never knew how to tell her. Now he has received the tapes, but can't figure out what he could have ever done to hurt Hannah so badly to kill herself.

Before reading this, I was hoping, based off the back of the book, that I could share the book with my class. Such a powerful message. Most of the things that Hannah speaks about on her tapes are negative comments/actions that most of the people probably thought were jokes. Unfortunately, it is a complete high school book. Lots of mature content is in the book. I just kept thinking what a great example at how just a little "joke" at a another's expense could change their friends, the way the feel about themselves, their entire lives.

This book really had me thinking. I literally could not put it down. Although when I did make myself put it down I couldn't stop thinking. I started to think of all the people who changed my life for the good or bad. If I were to write thirteen letters/tapes to thirteen people who would they be? Obviously, not for a suicidal reason. I just was really thinking hypothetically if I were to write these 13 letters who would they go to. I was really surprised at some of the people who I thought of. I won't go into detail of who all I thought of that would make too long of a post and quite personal. It was sort of funny to think that some people I thought of were in my life for such a small amount of time, but they made such a big impact.

Anyways, I really enjoyed the book. It was dark, very dark, but it was interesting.I really felt myself connect with the character. A lot of the feelings she had I could go back to my 16/17 year old self and relate to them.


(picture from http://www.waterstones.com/)

A Weekend of Firsts!

      I had a super relaxing weekend and it was much needed. I've been going and going so much lately that it seems like I can't catch a break. Friday night Jasmijn and I went and saw Water for Elephants. Ok so I have to explain once again how much of a total freak I am! I had started reading the book Water for Elephants the weekend before. Jasmijn and I had talked about going to see it, but I was so exhausted from TAKS testing that I completely forgot to really keep up with reading. Then Friday came, and I was on page 114 out of 330. Total freak out. Now I know most people probably would have said forget it and just went to see the movie. I can't. It literally pains me if I haven't finished the book yet. I know, pains me? I'm a freak I told you. A book freak especially. One of the greatest things for me is to read a book and then go and totally hate the movie.Why do I do this to myself? For the hope that maybe, just maybe, this one time they actually stayed closed to the book. Sometimes I am pleased. I know that it won't be the exact same. They have to hype up the story a bit for Hollywood and put some things on screen that are harder to get through with the books and vise versa. Most of the time I'm furious throughout the whole movie. Other times I'm amazed. A Time Travelers Wife... absolutely loved! It was of course a little different, but I thought pretty close. I loved Last Song (minus all the acting done by Miley Cyrus) this could be because Nicholas Sparks actually wrote the movie as well though. Other books I loved the movies for... A Walk to Remember, The Twilight movies, Harry Potter, Most Jodi Picoult movies, Little Women, and I'm sure there are a few more that I can't remember. Ones that I absolutely hate more than anything... Dear John, P.S I Love You (probably hate this one the most.... completely ruined the story in the movie) , My Sister's Keeper (were they serious with that ending?) The Lightening Thief, The Tale of Despereaux. I am sure I can think of a few others once I really get going.
       Anyways, back to the point of this.  I was bound and determined to get the book finished. I read and read every chance I could at school and even came home to lock myself in my room and finish. A few years ago Annie and I went to see the 6th Harry Potter movie. About a week before I hadn't read any of the books and got started right away. I couldn't finish, and was even still reading during the previews. Still didn't finish though. I wish you could have seen my shock when Dumbledore died at the end and I had no idea it was going to happen! So I have vowed to never do that again. I loved the book Water for Elephants. I thought it was intriguing. It was the same love story we have seen a thousand times, but was so much more interesting when you add the element of the circus in it. I thought it was enchanting and addicting. The movie was too. It was a little slow moving, and of course had parts that were changed, but I LOVED it!
        So why the "Firsts" title for this post? Saturday I actually got up and ran 6 miles! It totally motivated me for this whole half marathon thing. I felt so amazing and relieved during the run and after. I felt like I could do it. It was such a great feeling running. I also had my first bridal shower. My Aunt Rose and cousins Jocelyn and Celine threw it. It was a close group of friends, and I think went great. We had so much fun, playing games and the food was amazing. We got some really good stuff and I was so excited to finally get to see my dishes! Also, Dustin and I finally got an apartment! I am so excited. I had to give my first sacrifice though. Well, I say sacrifice, Dustin says compromise. The first apartment we looked at had a really small living area and kitchen. The bedrooms and bathrooms were big, and the closets.... the closet space was magical. It was everything I could have dreamed about. Two walk in closets and one closet that took up a whole wall. I was truly in love. The second apartment had a huge kitchen, living area, and a separate dining room area. Oh and a huge patio. The bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets were smaller. (significantly in the closet area) Dustin and I talked and I realized most of our time we are on the couch watching TV. So sadly, I gave up my beautiful closet space. I think I'm happier that I did though. The closet I get is still decent sized, and the apartment is on the corner and has a pretty good view with lots of windows. I cannot wait to actually live with Dustin and be with him all the time. I have not been able to sleep because I keep thinking of ways to decorate! Dustin moves both of our stuff in June 3rd (I'll be out of town.), but I won't move in until the wedding.

Wow... long post or what?  I don't have the pictures from the shower, but here is a cute one of my niece Morgan at the shower.