Category Archives: Uncategorized

Books I Want To Read Part 1

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It occurs to me that I’ve told you to read books, but I haven’t told you what books I look forward to reading! It’s weird because I read a lot of books, but I also have a HUGE amount of books that I buy in bulk purchases that I want to read and haven’t gotten the chance to… yet. This will have to be separated into a couple of parts because there’s no way I can cover them all in one blog post.

That said, I’d like to talk about the first book I’ve been wanting to read: Samantha Shannon’s The Mime Order which I’ve been waiting for, for over a year, has FINALLY arrived!!! I told you a bit about The Bone Season, and I told you I’ve been waiting for her new book to arrive at my house so I can read it. Well, I pre-ordered the book online about a little more than a month ago to make sure I’d get a copy the day it came out. On January 27th, the day The Mime Order came out in stores and online, I got an e-mail saying that my shipment had been delayed. I was sad, but I figured that it would ship the next day and then I’d be all set with my new book for overnight shipping. Nope. It took until January 31st for them to ship me my book, and I got it three days ago, February 2nd. I was very frustrated, but I have it now, so let bygones be bygones. I am so ecstatic that it has finally arrived, though! You’ll all be getting a review of the book as soon as I’m done!!

Now onto some of the books I want to read:

  • This second one is embarrassing that I haven’t read it yet, but I really want to read it!! The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. My last post mentioned the book Let it Snow by a trio of authors, one of whom is John Green. If his other books are anything like what he wrote in that novel, I will love this book. Everyone already seems to love both the book and the movie, so I really need to read it ASAP. Sorry John Green lovers! I’ll read it as soon as I can! (And maybe make a book vs movie in the process!!)
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Another book turned movie that I have yet to read. The movie looks amazing, and I contemplated seeing the movie first, but then decided against it (just FYI, I could write an entire blog about that alone. It’s such a tough decision!!!) I honestly don’t know too much about the novel except that there’s a murder and they’re trying to figure out who killed the person. But everyone has said that the book is amazing with a million plot twists, so I’ll give it a shot!
  • The next book, All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman, looks amazing. It’s about a a boy who has superhero friends, and marries a superhero. But one of her ex-boyfriends hypnotizes her so her husband is invisible. The husband then has a limited amount of time to get her to see him or she never will see him. It seems like such a weird concept that it HAS to be amazing. I’ve heard great things about it, so I look forward to reading it.
  • The last book that I reeeeeally want to read is the first of a series: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for so long. Every time I see it I say, “Oh! I’ll read that next!!” and then I get distracted by shiny objects and forget about it for a while. From what I gather of the book, it follows a girl whose family comes from a long line of witches. She finds an old alchemy book that awakens all types of demons and monsters and other sinister things and she’s the only one who can stop them. It looks so good. This is really the exact type of book I love to read most, and it’s even a series!! I can’t wait to read it. Soon… soon…

So that’s it for now, I have so many more to tell you, but I know if I keep going it’ll be a list of 30 books I want to read. So I’ll split this up and keep you posted on some stuff I want to read as it comes along. I hope you’re all enjoying the first of the next six more weeks of winter! Has it been six weeks yet?

Until next time!

Rachel

Let it Snow

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With the snow forcing me to stay inside for the day, I can’t help but think about all the comfy, cozy books that I’ve read that would be perfect for a snow day.

So without further ado, here is a short list of the best books to read during a snowstorm.

1. Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. This book is written in three parts, each by a different author. It chronicles three different people and their journeys through a really bad snowstorm on Christmas Eve. This was the perfect book to read during the holidays, and it makes you feel all warm inside when you read it. While I’m sure some of you don’t love young adult books, this is really a feel-good novel that is perfect for the snow.

2. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler. A witty memoir about the New Jersey-born comedienne Chelsea Handler and her life as a sex enthusiast. It’s a great book if you want to sit and laugh for hours (who doesn’t??) This is the first of Handler’s five books, published back in 2005 (10 years ago! Holy crap!) This is probably my favorite of her books, and I think it’s the most well written. It’s a smaller book, with just over 200 pages, so it goes by quickly! A perfect book for a dreary snow day.

3. The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Everyone knows of the stories: Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Briar-Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty) – they are very well known and often the bed time stories for children. However, the Grimm fairy tales are just that – grim. While Disney may have turned these stories into movies for kids to look up to, the original stories are really not for kids. Each tale has a moral and a theme, just like any other fairy tale. However, the way the brothers get to the moral is often extremely disturbing. Thus, I’d like to recommend this book, as long as you don’t plan to read it to your kids without reading it first yourself! The collection is very fun to read, though. It’s interesting to see what the REAL stories are, and how they’ve been changed through the ages. My favorite of the collection is Rapunzel. It’s a complete turnaround from the story we know already and, for me, it’s the most interesting to read of the collection.

Well, I think that’ll be enough books to hold you over for the day! If you’re in the New Jersey or tri-state area like I am, I hope you’re all keeping warm and safe! Watch out for that flash freeze!

What are you waiting for? Read!!

Rachel

Are You There Gods? It’s Me, Percy.

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After watching an older HBO show, Rome, with my boyfriend last weekend (which is a great show, by the way!) I started thinking about a certain set of books that had a sort of eerie, fantastical tone about them: the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.

I love young adult novels. I think they’re a great read – fun to read along to, with exciting stories usually about magic or mysteries, or in this case, the Gods of Olympus. I could read them nonstop all day. The combination of my love of reading and of Greek mythology (or Greek religion, if you will) is a sure-fire way to get me to read a book — as if I needed a reason!

The series begins with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. After finding out he is a demigod, the son of Poseidon, he is taken to a camp filled with other demigods where he can finally be himself. He makes new friends, and even meets a minor god in the Greek religion — and then a prophecy tells him that he must go on a quest to retrieve one of Zeus’ lightning bolts. Hijinks ensue, alliances are broken, and the villains of the series start to form. It’s a spectacular first book, with a great cliffhanger. The series just gets better with each book. It actually felt like the series was one continuous Greek myth that I was learning about for the first time. The writing was simple, but funny. You really feel as though you’re Percy going on these adventures.

After five books, Riordan finished off the Olympians series and focused on a couple of his other novels. He must have missed the characters, though, because he came out with a spin-off called The Heroes of Olympus. The Heroes of Olympus focuses more on the Roman gods, which were originally taken from the Greek religion. For example, the big ol’ lightning man himself, Zeus, is actually called Jupiter in Rome; and his wife, Hera, is called Juno. Roman religion was really just an amped up, angrier, more war-driven religion with nearly all the same gods and demigods as the Greek religion.

The first book in the novel The Lost Hero begins with a boy in a purple shirt on a field trip where he is attacked by mythological creatures, along with his best friend Leo and girlfriend Piper. Unfortunately, he has no memory of who he is, how he got there, or what that tattoo on his arm is about. He soon finds out that there is another camp, much like the camp that Percy Jackson found his home, but with the children of the Roman gods. The Roman gods are actually the same gods as in the Percy Jackson series, but almost with split personalities. It’s all incredibly interesting.

As with the previous series, there is a prophecy and a quest and the main character, Jason, must be the leader of it. Unlike the previous series, where the book was centered on Percy, this book is written by three different people. Jason, Leo, and Piper. The characters each alternate their chapters and pick up right where the last chapter left off. In the next book, we find our beloved hero Percy also unaware of who he is, where he’s from or how he got there while again being attacked by monsters. This book rotates characters for the chapters just like the last novel, but with new characters. It’s not until the third book that there are an array of characters from both books as the narrators of the chapters.

I would say during the third book I got kind of bored. I felt like I had been through these quests so long that it was more tedious than exciting. Each book had the same ebb and flow, starting with a quest, going on an adventure, almost getting killed, and then being fine. It was all the same. But about three quarters into the book Riordan started to get his steam back. I won’t tell you too much, because you have to read it for yourself! But it got SO good!

So my recommendation: if you love mythology, if you like young adult novels, if you like adventures, or even if you just like a fun read, these are the books for you. Remember though, if you feel like it’s getting a bit tedious, think of it like the How I Met Your Mother gag with The Proclaimers song, 500 Miles. You can listen to it over and over and over and eventually you get tired of it, but it always comes back around, stronger than ever.

And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more…. Da da da! Da da da!

Is the song stuck in your head yet?

I’m still trying to figure out how many blogs per week I’ll be posting. So until I’ve figured it out, I’ll just post whenever I feel like it ;-P

Until next time!

Rachel

The One When It Begins

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Hello Earthlings! I am new to blogging, but thought I’d give it a shot. This is an introductory blog post, so bear with me if it’s not spectacular just yet.

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I’ve written short stories, poems, tons of essays, and have recently started on my own book. It’s a slow process, but a fun one nonetheless. I have an insanely large collection of books. I have recently run out of bookshelf space and have all of the recent books I’ve read piled on my night table, as well as in a cardboard box left over from the holidays. So, I figured what better way to really pay some homage to my books, that I truly love, than to write about them?

My goal for this blog is to write reviews on books I’ve read, to write my thoughts on certain topics the books cover, and maybe even write some short stories to boot! If I stray from my preconceived ideas for this blog, I apologize in advance. I may need to go on some rants every now and then. Like I said, bear with me.

As this is my first blog and I do want it to be about books, I will give you a short list of books I have read recently that you need to read and why you need to read them. So without further ado, let there be books!

1. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. I read this when it first came out almost a year ago to the day. If you are interested in clairvoyance, slaves, underground gangs, and aliens then this book is for you. Words cannot explain just how much I love this book. It’s nearly 500 pages long and I read it in two days. I could not get enough of it. The sequel, of an anticipated seven books, is called The Mime Order and is actually released tomorrow, January 27th. I have preordered it and it should ship to me tomorrow! I can’t wait. Seriously, you have to read this book.

2. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I have always been fascinated with Asian culture – particularly Asian courtesans. I got my start on Asian culture with the Amy Tan books of which I got hooked on with The Valley of Amazement which I could go off on a tangent about for hours. I have just one Amy Tan book left to read before I’ve officially read all of her books including children’s books. Nevertheless, Memoirs was an eye-opening novel. It exposed me to the luxuries of geisha culture, of the sadness of it as well, and honestly just the absolute thrill of being in this cultural elite where one step out of line could cost you your career, and your family’s careers.

3. Last but not least, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This book made me cry throughout the entire novel. I hadn’t read a book that made me cry this much since The Valley of Amazement. As a woman whose extended family is Jewish, this book captured the right amount of sadness for those Jews involved during WWII, as well as the lives of the non-Jewish people who found it terribly difficult to stand by and watch, and their fear of their own family’s lives if they should help them. It’s a powerful book with a narrator that truly takes you beyond the war, beyond life itself, and into the realm of Death himself watching the world unravel.

Well, that’s all for now folks. I hope you enjoyed these recommendations. I’ll be back as soon as I can for another blog post. Until then, read!! Read as much as you can!!

Rachel