Jenna Likes to Read

Weekly Recap 7/25/10

Posted on 25 July 2010 | 1 response
Category: 2010, Books, Paranormal, Young Adult | Tags: Anthony Horowitz, Chelsea Campbell, In My Mailbox, Jennifer Echols, Shakespeare, Tera Lynn Childs

Books Read:

Forget You by Jennifer Echols - Really good read, however not quite as good as Going Too Far.  It didn’t have the same emotional punch.  But it was definitely enjoyable.  At times it was confusing, but I guess that’s what happens when the narrator has amnesia. :)

Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, Bk 1) by Anthony Horowitz – This was really fun.  It’s British, so of course I liked it!  But I did like the story too.  I’ll definitely continue with the series.

Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell – So much fun!  I liked this a lot.  I love superhero (and supervillain) movies, and this was just as good.  Damien was great – so sarcastic and funny.  I’d love to see more of Renegade X and the world he lives in.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Manga Edition – This was pretty cool.  I’ve read Hamlet before, but it was cool to see it as manga.

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs – I liked this a lot!  It was really cute.  At times it was a bit predictable, but the merworld was really fun and Lily was really endearing.

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi over at The Story Siren. Click here to learn more about it.

Books Received: 8

• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (PBS FIFO)
• Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti (PBS FIFO)
• Forget You by Jennifer Echols (Amazon)
• Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, Bk 1) by Anthony Horowitz (Borders)
• Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti (PBS FIFO)
• Swim the Flyby Don Calame (PBS FIFO)
• Point Blank (Alex Rider, Bk 2) by Anthony Horowitz (Borders)
• Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter (Borders)

Books Mailed: 5

• The Search by Nora Roberts
• Forget You by Jennifer Echols
• Watch Me by Lauren Barnholt
• Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
• Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti

Weekly Recap 7/18/10

Posted on 18 July 2010 | No responses
Category: 2010, Books, Paranormal, Young Adult | Tags: Emma Carlson Berne, In My Mailbox, Jennifer Brown, Maggie Stiefvater, Nora Roberts

Books Read:

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater – I wanted to like this more than I did.  I think I might have built it up too much in my head, because I love her writing.  I really liked Cole and Isabel, but Grace and Sam kind of grated on me and were too melodramatic.  Parts of the book were a little slow and didn’t hold my attention.  I will most definitely read the last book in the series, Forever, and anything else Maggie Stiefvater writes, but this wasn’t one of my favorite books.

Hate List  by Jennifer Brown – Wow.  This book was really amazing and yet so painful to read all at once.  Part of me couldn’t stop reading and the other part needed a break all at once.   There were a lot of aspects of the shooting that seemed very familiar from the shootings at Columbine and Heritage in 1999.  Probably others, too, but those are the ones I picked up on, since I was a senior in high school when they happened and Heritage was my rival high school.  I cried a lot reading this.

The Search by Nora Roberts – Not my favorite NR ever, but better than some others I’ve read recently.

Hard to Get by Emma Carlson Berne – The Simon Romantic Comedies are kind of hit or miss for me.  Some I love, some just don’t work for me.  This one feel into the latter category.

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi over at The Story Siren. Click here to learn more about it.

Books Received: 11

• The Kid Who Climbed Everest by Bear Grylls (PBS FIFO)
• Intertwined by Gena Showalter (PBS Game)
• Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner (PBS Game)
• Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (Borders because Amazon didn’t change the date so I canceled my pre-order and picked it up in the store)
• Goddess Boot Camp by Tera Lynn Childs (PBS Game)
• X-Isle by Steve Augarde (PBS Friend)
• Windblowne by Stephen Messer (PBS Friend)
• Keys to the Repository (Blue Bloods, Bk 5) by Melissa de la Cruz (B&N Giftcard)
• The Search by Nora Roberts (B&N Giftcard)
• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (PBS FIFO)
• Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell (PBS Game)

Books Mailed: 3

• Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien (PBS Game)
• Mossflower by Brian Jacques (PBS FIFO)
• Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski

Waiting on Wednesday 7/14/10

Posted on 14 July 2010 | 2 responses
Category: Books | Tags: Jennifer Echols, Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The book I am eagerly anticipating this week is Forget You by Jennifer Echols.

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . .  AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER?  There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.  But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

I LOVE Jennifer Echols’ books.  Going Too Far was one of my favorite books of 2009.  I made the mistake of reading the first chapter of the book on Echols’ website and now I am dying to have my hands on the rest of the book!

Teaser Tuesday 7/13/10

Posted on 13 July 2010 | 1 response
Category: Books | Tags: Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title and author, too, so others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they want

My teaser:

This is a love story.  I never knew there were so many kinds of love or that love could make people do so many different things.

~Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, page 2

I haven’t actually started reading yet, so I had to pick something from the prologue.  Of course, now I want to keep reading and not put my book back in my purse until lunch time!  I almost took a picture of my teaser because the ink is green and it’s so pretty!

Weekly Recap 7/11/10

Posted on 11 July 2010 | 2 responses
Category: 2010, Paranormal, Young Adult | Tags: Caragh M. O'Brien, Heather Brewer, In My Mailbox, Sara Shepard

Books Read:

Ninth Grade Slays (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Bk 2) by Heather Brewer – Love it!  I don’t know why I like this series so much, but I do.  I think part of it is I am enjoying books with male protagonists right now.  Vlad is awesome.

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien – Fantastic book!  I loved the story and I loved Gaia.  I was a bit sad at the end – the ending was very abrupt and a little disappointing compared to the rest of the book.  There’s definitely room for a sequel and I hope there is one!

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard – I pretty much picked this up because of the show on ABC Family.  I didn’t love the book, but I like seeing the stuff they changed in the show.  I will probably keep reading the series.

Books Received: 6

• Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz (PBS Game)
• Constellation Chronicles by Vincent Lowry (PBS FIFO)
• Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora by Philip Hinchcliffe (PBS Friend)
• Devilish by Maureen Johnson (PBS Game)
• Forgive My Fins by Terra Lynn Childs (PBS FIFO)
• Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien (Amazon)

Books Mailed: 5

Weekly Recap 7/4/10

Posted on 5 July 2010 | No responses
Category: 2010, Nonfiction, Paranormal, Young Adult | Tags: Francis Chan, In My Mailbox, Janette Rallison, Lynn Weingarten, Stephenie Meyer

Books Read:

Crazy Love by Francis Chan – Really interesting and challenging read!  I recommend it.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer – I’m not a huge Twilight fan, but I saw the movie Thursday night with friends.  Reading this was a nice refresher before seeing the movie, which was the best of the movies so far.

My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison – Cute read, but almost all of the characters were a little unlikable. I did like how the fairy tales were incorporated into the story.

Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten – An interesting book.  It ended up being pretty predictable and I didn’t love any of the characters.

Books Received: 8

• Kiss It by Erin Downing (PBS FIFO)
• The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart (PBS FIFO)
• Runaway (Airhead, Bk 3) by Meg Cabot (PBS Game)
• Sapphique (Incarceron, Bk 2) by Catherine Fisher (Amazon UK)
• Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Manga Edition (Amazon)
• Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepherd (Amazon)
• Poison Study (Study, Bk 1) by Maria V. Snyder (Amazon)
• Magic Study (Study, Bk 2) by Maria V. Snyder (Amazon)

Books Mailed: 11

Weekly Recap 6/27/10

Posted on 27 June 2010 | No responses
Category: 2010, Paranormal, Young Adult | Tags: Catherine Fisher, In My Mailbox, Sydney Salter

I kind of like this weekly recap idea, so I’m going to go with it for a little while. :)

Books Read:

Incarceron (Incarceron, Bk 1) by Catherine Fisher – So good!  I really liked this book.  It was interesting!  The settings (both inside and outside Incarceron) were so imaginative.  Inside the prison was creepy.  It wasn’t what I expected, but it was cool.  The outside of the prison being another kind of prision for Claudia was a pretty cool concept as well.  I liked how it went back and forth between Finn and Claudia.  As the action gets going, the perspective switches are faster.  There’s a lot of adventure and lots of reveals, but the reveals often open up new questions.  I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.  I ordered it from Amazon UK so it should be here this week or so.

Swoon at Your Own Risk  by Sydney Salter – Eh – it was okay.  I didn’t really love any of the characters.  Most of them were selfish and annoying.  Polly was kind of a brat at times and kind of hard to relate to.  But she wasn’t alone – Jane, Sawyer, Grandma Swoon, and Hayden weren’t likable either.  I did like Xander despite his creepy stalkerish ways.

Books Received: 3

• The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff (PBS FIFO)
• The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (PBS Game)
• Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 10) by Charlaine Harris (PBS FIFO)

Books Mailed: 4

Grrr…

Posted on 23 June 2010 | No responses
Category: Me | Tags: coding

I updated my blog theme yesterday and it overwrote my banner! I may have the old banner on my old computer at home, but I guess this is an excuse to update the books in the picture. :)

And I lost all the modifications I’d made!  I’ll definitely make a list of the changes I’m remaking now for next time.   And I won’t delete my back up until the new one is running correctly…

Weekly Recap 6/20/10

Posted on 21 June 2010 | No responses
Category: 2010, Young Adult | Tags: Nina de Gramont

Here’s what I read the 3rd Week of June.

Every Little Thing in the World by Nina de Gramont – This book was okay.  I had issues with several parts of it, though there were several parts I really liked.  I know that is vague, but explaining it would take longer than I have right now and I don’t really want to get into it.  The atmosphere in the book was great, though!

Aaaaaand… that’s it!  I had a busy week/weekend this week.  One thing I did do was add all of my TBR to my Goodreads profile, so now my TBR Pile page is graphical.  That makes me happy.

Speaking of the TBR pile, I have challenged myself to not buy any books until Mockingjay comes out in August.  It’s a little over two months, but I can do it!  (I do have two Amazon Preorders that I am not deleting, but no new purchases!)  I need to make a dent in the books I have.

Weekly Recap 6/13/10

Posted on 21 June 2010 | No responses
Category: 2010, Paranormal, Young Adult | Tags: Amy Kathleen Ryan, Cheryl Herbsman, Heather Brewer, Jenny Han, Megan Frazer, Melissa Walker

Here’s what I read the second week of June.

Zen and Xander Undone  by Amy Kathleen Ryan – This book was okay.  It was another book that the sibling relationship frustrated me quite a bit.  I kind of felt like the story meandered for a while before it got to the plot/resolution.

Breathing by Cheryl Herbsman – This book was hard to get in to.  The extreme southern accents took some getting used to, despite the fact that I have a southern accent and know people that actually talk like the characters in the book.  Savannah was kind of frustrating.  I hated how she was so dependent on Jackson to be her everything.  I didn’t think she really learned to “breath” on her own by the end.

Eighth Grade Bites (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Bk 1) by Heather Brewer – I am not a huge fan of vampires, but I loved this book!  Vlad is awesome.  I really liked how he was down to earth and just kind of normal in a “I’m secretly a vampire way.”  I also liked that HE was the sidekick and Henry was popular instead of the other way around.  I have the next two books in the series and can’t wait to read them!

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han – I wasn’t a fan of this at all.  Belly was obnoxious and the “romance” was pretty lame.  The book was set at the beach but didn’t really feel like it was.

Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker – At first I was pretty annoyed with Quinn, but she grew on me.  She was so stuck up about what music was “good” and I didn’t like the way she didn’t like Penny, Chrissy, and Russ because they were in a sorority/fraternity.  I did like that she grew up in the book and became a lot nicer by the end.  I ended up liking the book.  It was a quick two hour read.

Secrets of Truth and Beauty by Megan Frazer – This was okay.  It kind of felt all over the place, but I guess in the end it was about acceptance.  I think.  The “romance” felt kind of like a last minute addition and the book probably would have been better without it.

older posts »